An Old Snake
by SeththeGreat
Summary: David, the man once know as Solid Snake, not having much time to live, decides to spend his days in the Smash Universe to find peace. But when a new threat rises, David learns he is going to have to go back into combat. Only this time, he is fighting for others, and fighting for what he believes in. But is that enough to face the powerful force of evil roaming the Smash Universe?
1. David

In the year 2014, Solid Snake completed his final mission. He put an end to Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection and uploaded the FOXALIVE virus into the GW, one of the Patriot AIs. FOXALIVE not only destroyed GW, but it spread to all the other AIs, finally eliminating the Patriots. The days of being Solid Snake, the legendary soldier who saved the world from nuclear war several times, the man who single handedly took down Metal Gears, a Hind D Gunship, and a Tank using only frag grenades, were over. There wasn't a Solid Snake anymore, he chose to go by his name, David. David refused to be acknowledged as Solid Snake, because doing so referred to him as a soldier. David isn't a soldier. David is a man, a man who was intent on living the remainder of his days as a man, and not as a Snake. This was the dying wish of David's father, the legendary soldier Big Boss. Now David was 42 years old, but his body & face looked like it was in its late 70s, due to the accelerated aging that his body was going through. People stared at David when he went out into public because of the severe burns that covered the left side of his face. David wanted to find a peaceful place that he could spend the remainder of his days. He thought about all the places he had traveled throughout his career, trying to figure out which one was the most peaceful. Unfortunately out of all the places he had been to, most of them he was on a mission, and was either sneaking to an objective, or was in a firefight. But then, one place came to mind. A place he went to somewhere after the Big Shell incident in 2009. While he was on a mission there, it was unlike any of his other missions. David considered it to be his favorite mission. He didn't kill a single human being on this mission, because he wasn't fighting humans. For the first time in his life, he fought supernatural beings. He didn't have any regrets eliminating these enemies. But he made friends with several memorable characters. The names Meta Knight, Lucario, Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, Samus Aran, Luigi, Fox McCloud, and Falco Lombardi came to mind. This place was the Smash Bros Universe. The place he decided to stay at for 6 months even after the mission was complete. "That's the place I want to spend the remainder of my life" David said. There wasn't much he could pass on to the future on Earth. But in the Smash Universe, he had a load of knowledge he could pass, as the people in the universe were ignorant to most of the customs and activities that he knew of. David had made the decision. He was going to the Smash Bros Universe.


	2. Arrival

David traveled to the Smash Universe through a transportation device that Master Hand gave him before he left. "You can use this whenever you decide to come back" Master Hand said. That was several years ago, back in 2008. Back then, David was Solid Snake. Nobody knew anything about him, but he knew everything about everyone. He would let them know that too. After he would tell someone their own life's story, he would always get the response "How did you know that?" He would always respond with "Unlike you, I've been briefed." At that time, Snake looked nothing like what he did now. He had a young, grizzled face with a full beard and a mullet. His hair was brown of course. But now he has the face of a much older man, grey hair, a mustache, wrinkles, and of course, burns covering the left side of his face. How was he supposed to explain this drastic change in appearance? Time didn't move any faster or slower in the Smash Universe, so he couldn't blame it on the speed of time between worlds. He also didn't want to scare any of the Smashers with the burn on his face, so he would have to disguise it. He decided to bring his Face Camo that he received after defeating Laughing Octupus, and set it to a younger depiction of his face. He was now ready to show himself in front of the Smashers.

David arrived at the Park near Smash Mansion. The first three people he saw were the three women of the Smash Universe. Samus Aran, Peach, and Zelda. He started walking over to them. As he got close, they looked over and saw him. He waved his hand and was about to give a greeting, but then Samus pulled out her pistol and pointed it at David.  
"Stop right there!" Samus ordered.  
David was surprised but he wasn't scared. He had been held up several times before. Samus was no rookie, her hands weren't shaking, her eyes weren't wandering, and the safety was off, so he couldn't pull the old "Can you shoot me rookie?" routine like he did with Meryl and Johnny. David could tell that Zelda and Peach didn't have the same defensive look on their face as Samus did, and were concerned why Samus was pointing a gun at him. "Samus, why are you pointing your gun at that man?" Peach asked.  
"We don't recognize this person, so how am I supposed to know if he is an enemy or not." Samus proclaimed.  
"Sir, what is your name?" Zelda asked David.  
"David, my name is David." David answered.  
"I'm sorry sir, but I'm not sure we know you." Peach said.  
"You do know me, and I know all of you, you just don't recognize me." David said.  
"Oh really?" Samus said with sarcasm  
"How about you show us how much you know about us?" "Alright then." David said. David looked over to Peach. "  
"You're Princess Peach, the beloved ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. You're often subject to kidnappings by Bowser, the King of Koopas, only to be saved later by the incredibly popular plumber Mario."  
He then turned over to Princess Zelda  
"You're Princess Zelda, Princess of Hyrule. You are the possessor of the Triforce of Wisdom, which in turn gives you outstanding wisdom that isn't seen in people of your age. You are often assisted by Link, the Hero of Time as well as the possessor of the Triforce of Courage, and are enemies with Ganondorf, the King of Evil and the possessor of the Triforce of Power."  
The three women had a look of shock after this. David finally looked over to Samus.  
"And you are Samus Aran, an Intergalactic Bounty Hunter. At age three, your home world of K-2L was raided by Space Pirates and your parents were killed. Afterwards you were adopted by the Chozo and taken to the planet Zebes. Once there, you were infused with their DNA and trained to be a warrior. When you're not wearing your Power Armor, you wear what you have on now, the Zero Suit."  
Samus was in absolute shock at what she was just told.  
"Ok, how the hell do you know all of this?" She asked.  
"Unlike you, I was briefed." David replied, hoping that they would get the reference.  
The woman gasped once he said this. There was a minute of nothing but silence. Finally, Samus broke the silence. She put her pistol down and asked  
"S-Snake? Is that you?"  
"That's the name I was once known by, I want you to call me by my real name. David."  
"David?" Zelda said. "Welcome back David!" Peach cried and ran up to David and gave him a hug.  
David was surprised by the hug, but quickly came back to his senses and returned the embrace. "It's good to see you too Peach." David said.  
"It's such a pleasure to see you again David. What have you been doing while you were gone?" Zelda asked.  
"That's a pretty long story. I didn't want to have to explain it so I brought a video log of my most recent mission."  
"Sna…David. I'm sorry about that. I didn't know who you were." Samus apologized.  
"Don't worry about it. It's not like I look just like I did last time." David said.  
All of a sudden, David began to have a coughing spell, something that began to occur quite frequently from his aging. As it was happening, the Face Camo deactivated for a short second. No one except Samus noticed it.  
"David? What just happened with your face? It changed appearance for a second…" Samus noticed something as she was talking.  
"Why are you wearing a mask David? What are you hiding?" She asked.  
David sighed in disappointment. He was concerned that Samus' observational skills would see through the mask and she did.  
"I was…hoping you wouldn't have to see me like this." David said. He reached for the Face Camo.  
"This…isn't going to be pretty…" David then began pulling off the Face Camo.


	3. Old Snake

**The disclaimer is on the first chapter. Happy New Year everyone. I have a lot of time on my hands and decided to use that time to continue this story. In this chapter, David reveals his condition to Samus, Peach, and Zelda, and will soon tell his story to the entire smash roster, something that he never did during his first visit. Review if you can, I really appreciate it. Enjoy.  
**

David removed the Face Camo that was hiding his true appearance. The three women were horrified at what the saw. Zelda gasped and turned away, tears began to water in her eyes.  
"My god." She whispered. Peach began to cry loudly. David sighed. This isn't what he wanted to happen.  
"Peach, please don't cry." He said, but was quickly met with a tight hug from Peach who leaned her head against his chest.  
"I'm so sorry David! I can't believe this happened to you!" She cried.  
David held Peach to comfort her, and then pulled away with his hands on her shoulders.

"I don't want any of you to feel sorry for me. I don't want to be pitied. I want to be looked at just like every person is here, and that's for who they are." David told her. Peach was still crying, but she nodded and understood David's wish.

"David." Zelda said. "Ever since I met you, I've been able to tell that you have a terrible past. A past that is filled with violence and tragedy. And I know it eats away at you."

"You're right" David answered. "I have a lot of scars on my body from fighting in battles, but they are nowhere near as numerous as the scars of my conscience. I didn't tell anyone about my past the last time I was here. I didn't because I was worried that everyone would look at me like I was a sick twisted bastard. But I think it's time I told everyone about myself."

"Hold on a second David." Samus said in an almost demanding manner. She pulled out a device and pointed it at David. She activated it, which caused a holographic green cone to come out and went up and down David's body. It was obviously some type of scanning device. After finishing with the scan, the cone disappeared.

Samus looked at the screen of the device, and she received the results of the scan. Whatever it was it horrified her.

"What's wrong Samus?" David asked with concern.

"I scanned your body for vitals, and its internal condition… David. You shouldn't be standing right now. A normal man would be bed ridden in this state." Samus stated.

"Well that's another thing. I'm not a normal man to begin with." David said.

This left the three women confused.

"What do you mean David?" Peach asked.

"I need to tell you…no not just you. I need to tell everybody here my story so that everyone can understand who and what I am." David answered.

"Well then we need to let you do just that. You can tell your story at Smash Mansion." Zelda said.

* * *

All the smashers were gathered in the living room of Smash Mansion. They knew that they were there because "Snake" was going to tell them all something, but they had no idea as to what it was going to be. Finally, David arrived in the room. The smasher's jaws just dropped at the sight of "Snake". David expected this reaction, and sat down in his chair.

"You're probably wondering why I look like I'm 70 years old and why I have a hideous burn on my face."

All the Smashers nodded.

"Well don't worry, I'm going to explain that. But that's not the only reason why I'm here. I want to tell you my entire story. Last time I was here the only thing that people knew about me was that I was this legendary soldier and mercenary that saved the world from these giant robots called Metal Gear ."

"Yeah! So you're a hero right?" Lucas answered with a look of admiration for the former soldier.

If there was anything that David didn't like, it was being considered a hero. He never thought himself of a hero. He killed living breathing people to carry out his missions. He was betrayed by his superiors who he thought he could trust.

"I'm no hero Lucas…" David said. "I'm a beast who's good at what I was created to do…kill."

"David, don't be so hard on yourself. I know from experience, that sometimes you have to take lives for the greater good." Samus said trying to comfort him

"Let me ask you all something. Have you ever taken the life of a living, breathing person with a gun, knife, or your own hands?" David asked.

None of the Smashers responded.

"When I killed a person for the first time, I wasn't a good feeling. But unfortunately killing is one of those things that gets easier the more you do it. I convinced myselfthat I was killing those people for the good of the world, as my mission stated it would be. But after I found out my mission was nothing but a distraction made by my commanding officer, who was actually the enemy, it was already too late. I had gotten to a point where taking a life didn't faze me anymore." David said.

There was a silence in the room for a minute.

Mario broke the silence.

"Snake… I mean David. You looked a bit stressed. Do you want me to light one of your cigarettes for you?" Mario asked

"Thanks for the offer Mario, but I quit smoking." David answered

"Wow. You really have changed." Mario said with a smirk on his face

"So when are you going to begin telling your story David?" Link asked.

"I'd like to begin now, but I'm waiting for a friend to show up. He has something I need to tell the story."

Shortly after, the man David was waiting for came into the room. It was David's best friend, Hal Emmerich, or as he usually called him, Otacon. He also had the device that David needed, the Metal Gear Mk. III, a robot device he used to follow and aid David during his last mission. It also recorded his mission. Along with Hal was Sunny, Hal's adopted daughter.

"Sorry we're late David." Hal apologized.

"It's ok Otacon." David assured him. "Everyone this is my best friend Dr. Hal Emmerich and his adopted daughter Sunny. They helped me through my most recent mission."

Peach being the friendliest person around, was the first one to greet him.

"Nice to meet you Dr. Emmerich!" Peach said with joy in her voice.

Hal became nervous that this woman came up to him and was so friendly. He looked over to David, giving him a look that David immediately recognized. It was a look that said "Who is this?"

"That's Peach, Otacon." David informed him

Hal extended his hand to Peach, we she happily took and shook.

"Nice to meet you Peach. And please…call me Hal" he told her

Peach giggled "Hal, that's a great name!"

Hal began to blush once she said this, and straightened out his glasses, something he does often when he's nervous. David noticed this and had a smirk on his face. Peach then looked over to Sunny

"And hello there sweetie!"

Sunny was usually nervous around new people. But she took an instant liking to Peach.

"Hello P-Princess Peach" she said a bit shyly.

"Ok now that everyone is here, let's begin." David said

**Next Chapter will contain information from the entire Metal Gear Solid Series. So if you don't know much about Solid Snake or the Metal Gear Series itself right now, you will next chapter. **


	4. The Story of David

My story begins before I was born. It begins with a legendary soldier codenamed Big Boss, a man who would be my father. In 1964, my father took part in a mission called the Virtuous Mission. His objective was to find and rescue a scientist named Dr. Sokolov. It seemed like it would be a simple search and rescue mission. But then something unexpected happened. There was a woman with the codename, The Boss. She was the best when it came to black operations. It was because of that she was known as the Mother of Special Forces. The Boss and my father were very close. She trained him, they developed a fighting technique called CQC together, they survived together. No one really understood their relationship, but my father said that it went deeper then love. My father looked to The Boss as a spiritual mother. But then she did something he never thought would happen. While he was escorting Sokolov, The Boss defected to the Soviet Union, America's enemy at the time. She had stolen a Davy Crocket from America and gave it to Colonel Volgin, the leader of the Russian enemies my father faced. She betrayed my father and threw him over a bridge, leaving him close to death. Then another unexpected event happen, something The Boss didn't even expect. Volgin launched the nuclear Davy Crockett at Sokolov's research facility, and framed the United States for it. The reason why The Boss didn't expect this, was because her defection to the Soviet Union was a part of her mission given to her by the United States. Her mission was to defect to the Soviet Union in order to steal something Volgin possessed called the Philosopher's Legacy, which was a massive amount of funds. The Davy Crocketts she had given Volgin were to be used as a way to gain Volgin's trust. The U.S. didn't expect Volgin to launch it. So now the U.S. was in a predicament. They were being framed for launching a nuke at Russia. With the threat of nuclear war imminent, the US needed to convince Russia that they had nothing to do with the nuclear launch, and that it was purely The Boss defecting. There was only one way they could think of to do it. They would send the Boss' most beloved protégé, my father, to assassinate her. My father went through with the mission, and succeeded. He battled and killed The Boss, which would haunt him and affect him for the rest of his life. He had no idea about the true nature of his mission until after it was complete. After he learned this, the loyalty he had felt for his country was completely destroyed. Sometime later, my father joined his commanding officer Major Zero in helping to create an organization called the Patriots. The organization was created to carry out The Boss' will. But my father and Major Zero had interpreted her will differently, which led to much tension between them. Sometime later, my father was severely injured in combat and went into a coma. Major Zero wanted to use this opportunity to create a new image of Big Boss, in the case that my father decided to turn against them. This is what led to my birth.

Les Enfants Terribles. The Terrible Twins. It was a project in the 1970s that aimed to create clones of my father, the Legendary Big Boss. Since my father couldn't reproduce naturally, the project involved genetic manipulation of my father's genes. They took an egg from an assistant of the project, and fertilized with the DNA of my father. The egg was then transferred to a woman with the codename EVA, who would be my mother. Originally, eight embryos were created, but in order to encourage growth, six of the embryos were aborted. Those two embryos would be me, Solid Snake, and my brother, Liquid Snake. Our genes were genetically manipulated before we were born to make us war machines. As a result, we were considered weapons, and so, they decided to create a few fail-safes. For one, they made it to where we weren't able to reproduce. Then, they shortened our life span to where we would undergo accelerated aging. This is the reason why I look like I'm in my 70s. All of this was in order to prevent us from being a danger in case we fell into the wrong hands. So yes, I'm not a normal human being. I'm a beast. Created as a tool for war and destruction. Not for peace. I can't have a normal life. I can't have a family. I can't love. Hell, I don't think anyone could love me in my current condition. Anyway, whenever I grew to an adult, I was accepted into a special forces unit called FOXHOUND, which was commanded by my father, but I didn't know this at the time. My first mission was to infiltrate a mercenary nation called Outer Haven and rescue my best friend Frank Jaegar, codenamed Gray Fox, and to destroy Metal Gear. I rescued Gray Fox and proceeded to destroy Metal Gear. It was then that I found out who the leader of Outer Haven was. It was my father. It turns out that he had sent me on the mission to keep the US from taking any action on his plans while being able to retain control of FOXHOUND. He also thought that I would end up getting killed because I was a rookie. We fought, and it was one of the toughest fights I had ever been in. But I beat him. I still had yet to know that Big Boss was actually my father. To me, he was my commanding officer that betrayed me at that time.

I retired from FOXHOUND for a short while after that, but I was brought back in by my friend Colonel Roy Campbell. My mission took place at Zanzibar Land. This was the mission that completely took away any type of innocence that I had left. A new Metal Gear was at Zanzibar Land. When I encountered it, my friend Gray Fox, was controlling it. We were two soldiers on opposite sides. A lot of people don't understand it, but there was nothing personal between us. We were just two soldiers doing our jobs. Gray Fox fought me in the Metal Gear, but I still managed to destroy it, but I didn't defeat Gray Fox. Afterwards, I met Gray Fox on a mine field, and we fought in a vicious fist fight. I won by punching him into a landmine, and I watched as my best friend was blown into pieces. I was ready to get out of there, but a familiar voice called to me, telling me to come over to him. It turned out to be Big Boss. He had survived Outer Haven, and he wanted one last fight with me. I had no weapons, as all of my equipment was destroyed in a fire after the fight with Metal Gear. My training had taught me to improvise and use whatever tools I could find as a means for combat. I found a lighter and a spray can, which I used as a makeshift flamethrower, and used it to set Big Boss on fire. As he was burning to death, he was calling my name. He finally told me something that I would never forget. He told me he was my father, right before he died. I was scarred forever. Not only did I punch my best friend into a landmine, I knowingly killed my father.

After the mission I decided to retire to Alaska. I suffered nightmares every night, and flashbacks and hallucinations every day. I decided to use Dog Sledding as a way to keep my mind off the memories. Six years later, I was called into the most infamous mission of my career. Shadow Moses Island. FOXHOUND had went rogue and started a revolution there. They threatened the United States with a Nuclear Strike if they didn't give them the remains of Big Boss. My mission was to rescue the DARPA chief and the President of a company called Armstech, and to stop the terrorist if I found out that they were capable of launching a nuke. They were more than capable. They had themselves a Metal Gear. As I was rescuing the DARPA Chief, he died of what seemed like a heart attack. Afterwards I met a girl named Meryl Silverburgh, who I developed a relationship with during the mission. After that I went to save the President of Armstech, but I was encountered by a man with the codename Revolver Ocelot, one of the members of FOXHOUND. We engaged in a duel, but it was soon interrupted by a cyborg ninja, who cut off Ocelot's hand. After talking with the Armstech President, he died the same way the DARPA chief had. I found out that the Colonel was keeping secrets from me. He said he wasn't but he was never a good liar. I met Otacon later on in the mission, as he knew how to stop Metal Gear. But before I talked to him, I fought with the cyborg ninja. The ninja turned out to be Gray Fox, who I thought I had killed in Zanzibar. I was told by Naomi that his remains were retrieved and they revived him and kept him alive through a robotic exoskeleton. Afterwards I met up with Meryl and we traveled through the facility together. Then she was shot by Sniper Wolf, another member of FOXHOUND. She did it to try to lure me out so she could pick me off. I had no choice but to go back and get a sniper rifle to fight Sniper Wolf. When I came back, Meryl had been taken away. I defeated Sniper Wolf, but I didn't kill her. I was surrounded shortly afterward, and a guard knocked me out and I was captured. When I woke up, I met my brother Liquid Snake, who was the leader of the FOXHOUND rebellion. I was also on an electric torture device, which Ocelot used on me. I had the choice endure the torture or give in to it and not be tortured. However if I gave in then Meryl would be killed. I chose to endure it. It would have been easy to give up, but I could never have forgiven myself if I had let Meryl die because of my weakness. I was able to escape captivity and continue my mission. It was found out that Naomi was a spy for the terrorist, and she was put under arrest. Naomi contacted me somehow afterwards, and told me that before the mission, she had injected me with a virus called FOXDIE, which was programmed to kill specific people during my mission. Among those were the DARPA chief and the Armstech President, which explained why they had died. However, she had programmed FOXDIE to kill me as well. She set it to a wildcard value, so I have no idea when it will kill me. God must be looking on me with a smile, because I haven't been killed from it in the 9 years that it's been in my body. But I understood why she had done it. It turns out, she was Frank Jaegar's adopted sister. She was the only family he had. And I had sent him home in pieces, soon to become a cyborg. But she regretted it, apparently I wasn't as much of a heartless, cold blooded killer that she had pictured me to be. But what she told me that was shocking to me, was that me being injected with FOXDIE was not her own doing. Rather, it was injected into me as a part of the operation. Before she could say anymore, she was caught by the Colonel and she was taken away. I had made my way to Metal Gear's Hangar, and I encountered Liquid. Before we began our fight, he told me about the Les Enfants Terribles project. Only then was I finally convinced that we were indeed twins. So he got inside of Metal Gear and the battle began. Otacon had instructed me to shoot a part of Metal Gear called the Radome with Stinger Missles, as this would shut down Metal Gear's automatic combat systems, and would force Liquid to open the cockpit of Metal Gear so I could shoot Metal Gear's weak point. The inside of it. I succeeded in destroying the Radome, and Liquid opened the cockpit of Metal Gear, making himself and Metal Gear's inside vulnerable to fire. But in a fit of rage, Liquid was about to stomp on me with Metal Gear. I would have been dead if Gray Fox hadn't shown up. With his Cyborg strength, he was able to hold up the foot of Metal Gear, and prevented it from stomping on me. I got away from the foot, and hid behind a large cargo box. Gray Fox met me there. I told him to stay out of this, as Naomi was hell bent on getting revenge for him, and he was the only one who could stop her. He told me that he had killed Naomi's parents when he was young and he raised her like his own in order to sooth his guilty conscience. He then told me to tell Naomi that he was the one who killed her parents. He took off and fought against Metal Gear. Liquid cut off Gray Fox's arm with one of Metal Gear's laser beams, and then rammed him against a wall using the cockpit. Gray Fox told me that now was the perfect time to shoot Metal Gear's cockpit, and destroy it. But Liquid reminded me that if I shot the cockpit, it would kill Gray Fox to. I…I couldn't fire the missile. I had already killed Gray Fox once before and I wasn't going to do it again. After long hesitation, Liquid threw Gray Fox onto the ground using the front of Metal Gear. He stomped on Fox, which surprisingly didn't kill him. But it was only a matter of time before Liquid stomped on him a second time. His last words to me were "We're not tools of the government, or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing I was good at. But at least I always fought for what I believed in. Snake…farewell." The second stomp came, and Gray Fox was gone forever. The only thing that was left of him was a large puddle of blood under Metal Gear's foot. I wouldn't let Gray Fox die in vain, so I destroyed Metal Gear finally. The explosion was big and threw me into a wall and I was knocked out. When I woke up, I was on the top of the destroyed Metal Gear, with my hands tied behind my back. It turned out that Liquid had survived the explosion from Metal Gear's destruction, and dragged me to the top while I was unconscious. He told me that the reason the Government decided to inject me with FOXDIE was so that it would kill the members of FOXHOUND so that the government would be able to retrieve Metal Gear undamaged for their own use. My whole mission was nothing but a ruse set up by the Pentagon. Liquid then told me that the Pentagon had found out that Metal Gear had been destroyed, so they decided there was no further use of the facility, so they were sending Bombers to bomb Shadow Moses and eliminate everyone on the island, which would eliminate any witnesses of the event. I called Colonel Campbell about it, and he confirmed that it was true. He also told me why he had been keeping secrets from me. It turned out that the Pentagon purposely sent Meryl, his daughter, to Shadow Moses the day before the revolution in order to have leverage against him in order to get his cooperation in the mission, as well as getting him to get me involved in the mission. He told me he would do whatever he could to stop the bombing run, but as he said that, the Secretary of Defense had him arrested. The Secretary of Defense was the one that had issued the bombing run. Liquid untied my hands and challenged me to a fist fight. I had turned around and saw Meryl was with us on top of Metal Gear. Her hands were tied up and she was unconscious. Liquid and I battled in a vicious fist fight, but I was the victor and punched him off of Metal Gear. I immediately went to check on Meryl. She was alive, which gave me so much relief. Otacon called me and told me that he was going to stay in Shadow Moses to open up an escape route for us, willing to sacrifice his life for Meryl and me. I was going to make sure he wouldn't do it in vain. Meryl and I found a jeep to escape. She drove while I used the mounted turret on the back to clear a path for us. While we were driving, Liquid arrived in a jeep of his own, and was shooting at us with an assault rifle. We got to the end of the tunnel, and both Liquid and our Jeep crashed. Me and Meryl were stuck under our jeep. Liquid came out from his jeep, looking half dead, and began making his way towards us with an assault rifle in his hand. He got close, and aimed his rifle towards my head. I thought it was the end. But right before he was about to kill me, the unthinkable happened. He succumbed to FOXDIE, and began falling to the ground and died. I got a call from Campbell afterwards, and he told me he got in contact with the president, and told him about the Secretary of Defense's bombing orders. The president rescinded the bombing orders and placed the Secretary of Defense under arrest. Me and Meryl left Shadow Moses on a snow mobile, and Campbell sent a helicopter to pick up Otacon.

After Shadow Moses, me and Meryl lived together in my home in Alaska. I had finally thought that I had found love. But it turned out, Meryl hadn't fallen in love with David. She had fallen in love with Solid Snake. When she realized that David didn't meet the made up standards of what living with Solid Snake would be, she began to lose interest. She left my house after 6 months. Afterwards, I got in contact with Otacon and we formed the organization Philantrophy, an organization created for getting rid of Metal Gears around the world. Metal Gears were becoming quite frequent when Ocelot leaked the blueprints for Metal Gear REX onto the black market. However in 2007, we got a report of a Metal Gear in a tanker under control of US Marines. When I arrived on the Tanker, the ship was taken over by a group of Russian mercenary troops. I infiltrated the bottom deck of the tanker, were the Metal Gear was being held. I took pictures of the Metal Gear and sent them to Otacon so that he could expose them on the internet. But then Ocelot arrived and he hijacked the Metal Gear. But before he did that, I found he was being possessed by Liquid through Liquid's arm. Ocelot had transferred Liquid's arm to replace his hand that was cut off by Gray Fox. Liquid took Metal Gear and sunk the Tanker. I was able to live miraculously with Otacon's help, but I was presumed to be dead. After we found out that the Patriots, the group that was running America behind the scenes, had labeled me as a terrorist and that I had sunk the tanker, I wanted people to think I was dead. So we used Liquids dead body that we had stolen to trick everyone into thinking I was dead. Liquid's genetic DNA matched mine exactly, so it worked perfectly.

That brings us to my final mission, which Otacon will show you on the video log he made using the Metal Gear .

* * *

**Man, that was a lot to write. By the way, for those who have played Metal Gear Solid 2, I decided to skip the mentioning of the Big Shell chapter because that featured Raiden more than Solid Snake obviously. Next chapter, Otacon will show the Smashers David's final mission (MGS4) on a video on the . I will explain very briefly some elements of the mission, but I will not explain it in as much detail that I did with this chapter. Because anyone who has played MGS4 knows that there is a ton of content to be covered, and covering it with a lot of detail would feel like writing a book to me. After that, David will begin his new life in the Smash Universe.**


	5. Time to Live Life

"Otacon recorded a video log of the mission. I'm going to let him play it instead of having me explain it to you all. Besides, I think that seeing this video will show you what exactly war is, better than my words can. Thank you all for gathering here tonight to hear my story. Otacon, play the video."

And with that, David left the living room of Smash Mansion, and sat down outside at the front yard.

Otacon picked up where David left off. He gave the Smashers an overview of the mission before playing the video.

"We had received word the Liquid, now possessing Revolver Ocelot had begun his Insurrection in the Middle East. David was sent there with the task of assassinating Liquid. At this time, the War Economy had broken out, and the SOP (System of the Partriots) System had been invented. The SOP system monitored soldiers to control their senses and emotions in order to create high caliber soldiers in a small amount of time. SOP was implemented into PMCs (Private Military Corporations). The Patriots controlled these PMCs and assigned Ocelot to handle them. Therefore, when Liquid took control of Ocelot, he took control of those PMCs. During David's mission, there was a war between the PMCs and the Middle East Militias, who were not under SOP control. I'm going to play the video, it's very graphic so if you don't want to see it, you're more than welcome to leave the room at any time."

Nobody left the room.

"Well alright, I'll begin the video." Otacon said. He went over to the which was hooked up to a projector. He pushed a few buttons on its screen and he played the video.

The video began playing. The Smashers in the room had a view of David on screen, but around him were soldiers from the PMCs and the Militia. David was sneaking in

the middle of a war zone. Guns were firing, bodies were falling, blood was spilling. Images of people dying, being shot, or having their body parts blown to pieces were

being seen in the video. The Smashers were horrified. Even Bowser, Ganondorf, and Wolf O' Donnel, the villians of the Smash Roster, had never seen this type of

violence. A few blood soaked hours later, Snake had made it to Liquid's camp. There, Liquid began messing with the SOP system and the PMC troopers emotions began

running amuck. Some began crying, screaming, laughing, or became increasingly violent. The troopers were attacking each other, and some just had their hearts stop.

David's nanomachines were being tampered with from this event, and he began losing consciousness, and finally fell to the ground.

David then went to France to rescue Dr. Naomi Hunter. He snuck through the warzone, and saved her with the help of Raiden, a friend of David and Otacon whom they

had met at the Big Shell incident 5 years prior. His body was fitted with a robotic exoskeleton, and he had become a Cyborg Ninja. Snake then went to find Big Mama,

so he could locate the corpse of Big Boss. Big Mama was revealed to be EVA, the mother of David and Liquid. David and his mother were being chased in hot pursuit by

Liquids army, and they escaped on EVA's motorbike. The arrived at a dock, and were encountered by Liquid and his FROG troopers. David and Liquid fought with CQC,

but Liquid had the advantage and took David's gun and knife, which he stabbed him in the shoulder with. Liquid showed that they had burned the body of "Big Boss"

much to EVAs horror. They left it behind when they took off, and EVA tried to get the body out of the fire, which only put herself in the fire. David ran to save his mother

in the fire, but as he was going into the fire, Liquid shot the source of the fire. This caused the fire to flare and intensify, and fire burned the left side of David's face. Hi

mother died later on. Liquid had taken control of SOP, and used it to deactivate the guns of all the soldiers who surrounded him to arrest him. He then had his FROG

Troopers attack all of them. It was a massacre. David went to Shadow Moses Island again, to stop Liquid from stealing Metal Gear REXs railgun. They tried, but they

had failed. Finally, they boarded Liquid's vessel, with the mission to upload a virus into the GW Patriot AI system. But in order to get there, David had to escort the , the

machine that carried the virus, through a hall filled with Microwaves. David encountered FROG troops along way. Before he made it to the Microwave hall, he began

having a terrible nanomachine attack. He fell to the ground and began to spasm. His nanomachines would go haywire like that throughtout the mission, but it would

usually stop after David injected a syringe into his neck. But this time, the syringe wasn't working. What was worse, FROG troopers were slowly coming towards a

defenseless David with machetes. Fortunately, Raiden had come and saved David just in time. He bought David time to go through the microwave hall. David had finally

made it. As soon as he opened the door, he was immediately overwhelmed by the intense heat of the room. He began slowly walking through. David was being

cooked. He was suffering. He fell to his knees and began crawling through the hallway. The smashers were looking in horror. Some were crying, some looked away.

They couldn't believe all the pain David was putting himself through. Otacon could be heard pleading with David to keep going. David seemed to be unresponsive at

times. He had finally made it through. David and Otacon were inside GW's control room. David stood up for a few seconds, then threw up and crashed onto the floor

again. Otacon began uploading the virus. A few moments later, droids began to come to the room in an attempt to stop the . David had stood up by this time and

began shooting the droids. When he ran out of ammo, he began swinging his gun around like a madman in order to hold the droids back. David soon became

overwhelmed by the droids and was pinned down by them.

"OTACOOOON!" David screamed as he was being attacked by droids.

"WE DID IT!" Otacon screamed with joy.

They had done it. They had uploaded the virus to GW. But they got more than they expected. They had uploaded a virus called FOXALIVE, and it completely destroyed

all the Patriot AI systems, instead of just GW itself. However, it left concepts that the Patriots created that could be used to help the world rebuild itself. They had freed

the world of the Patriots. The video stream ended there.

"Ok. Thank you all for your time." Otacon said dismissing them. All the Smashers left the living room, still in shock of what they had just saw. From that day forward,

they had all had deep respect, maybe even fear, for David.

* * *

David was still outside of Smash Mansion, drinking a bottle of water on a bench. He had saw that the Smashers had been dismissed from the living room. He hoped

that his story and the video would help them to know his backstory and why he is the way he is. A young boy's voice came from behind David.

" ?" the voice said.

David turned around and saw the source of the voice. It had been none other than Lucas, standing along with Samus.

"What's going on Lucas?" David answered.

"I…I had no idea how much you've suffered throughout your life. I thought that I had it worse than anyone else here. But…you…you had your family and friends betray you. And you had to go through so much."

"Lucas…it doesn't matter how much we suffer in our lives compared to others. It's not a competition. Hardships are something that everybody has to go through. Some people may it worse than others. But we have to learn how to take those hardships and use them to make a better future for ourselves, and to become better people. I'm not sure if I did that, but you still can. You have your entire life to live, and I don't want you wasting it by dwelling on what's happened in the past. If you dwell in the past, then time will pass you by. And by the time you realize it, you've already been left behind."

"What do you think I should do with my life Mr. David?" Lucas asked.

"You're a very smart kid Lucas. I never asked that question until I was an old man. I never asked why I did what I was doing at the time, I just did it because it was my job. My life was all about staring death in the face and beating it. I can't tell you what exactly what to do with your life Lucas. But what I've learned is that whatever we do with our lives, we shouldn't live it just for our own satisfaction. We should live our lives for others." David answered.

"Ok. I will! Thanks Mr. David." Lucas said and then walked off. David smiled at the boy as he headed back to Smash Mansion.

"I never took you for a softie, David." Samus said as she took a seat on the bench next to David. David gave out a small chuckle whenever she said this. A very serious

look then appeared on Samus' face.

"How did you know about his problem with dwelling in the past?" Samus asked.

"I know the backstory of everyone here, I know what happened to Lucas' mother, and his brother. He's only a child. Even if he's a very strong child, I can tell that the trauma and grief of his past bothers him. The way he looks, his shyness towards people. It looks to me that he doesn't want to get close to people because he's afraid of losing them and having to go through all the grief again. But by the looks of it, it seems you two have gotten close. How is that?" David asked.

"I started looking after him and trying to help him with his problems because I just couldn't stand to see him be so sad all the time. But I've been trying for weeks to help him to let go of the past, but you talk to him for ten minutes and he seems to be a new person." Samus said.

"Have you let go of the past yourself Samus?" David said. Samus was rather shocked at this question.

"What are you talking about of course I have." Samus answer quickly.

"Have you?" David asked again twice as quickly. Samus was silent after he asked that, and she began thinking. She began to question herself on whether she had

really let go. David broke the silence.

"I just didn't want him to end up like my father." David said.

"What do you mean?" Samus asked

"My father never let go of the fact that he killed The Boss. He felt like he had to create a world he thought The Boss envisioned. He never let go of that. And then whenever he began battling against the Patriots, he lost all sense of what is right and what is wrong. Everything he was doing, he thought that if he was doing it to create a nation under The Boss' "vision" and to battle against the Patriots, then it was justified."

"I can't believe how evil your father was." Samus said.

"My father wasn't evil." David said, shocking Samus.

"What? But the things you said in your story…"

"Yeah, he did those things, and they weren't good things. But he wasn't evil. He had saved, rescued, and improved many people's lives during his life. What I didn't tell anyone, is that my father was revived by the Patriots after I killed him at Zanzibar. He was recreated and put in a coma, which he woke up from after the Patriots were destroyed. He tracked me down after he woke up. But he didn't find me to kill me. He found me to talk to me. He had finally realized the error of his ways, and he explained everything about what he did. I no longer looked at him as the monster that betrayed me, but as my father and a man. And if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here. His dying wish was that I don't waste the rest of my life fighting as a soldier, but that I use it to live as a man. Something him and Liquid weren't able to do."

Samus was once again speechless at what David was telling her. She couldn't believe how quick he was to forgive the people that had caused so much harm to him in his life.

"I don't know if I'll be able to understand how people like him and Naomi did such terrible things to you and you're just able to let it go and move on." Samus said.

"Well Samus, we can't ever forget the terrible things that some people do to us. I certainly never forgot about my father and Naomi's betrayal. But at the end of the day, we have to remember that they are living breathing human beings just like us, and that they are bound to make mistakes. We can't allow ourselves to always dwell on the actions of others and hold it against them for the rest of our lives. So I never did forget about what they did, but I did move on."

"You're a very strange man David." Samus said teasingly. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to live life Samus. And I think I've figured out what I'm going to do with life. You told me that I helped Lucas out today. It felt really good to hear that I've possibly improved someone's life directly instead of taking away lives like I've done most of my life. So my life isn't going to be about me. It's going to be about helping others, by using the knowledge and experience that I've obtained throughout my life. Basically, I'm going to pass things on to the future."

"That sounds good David." Samus said with a smile.

"It sure does. Good night Samus." He said and extended his hand for a handshake. Samus returned the gesture not with a handshake, but something rather

uncharacteristic of her, a hug.

"Good night David." She told him as she warmly embraced him.

David ended up returning the hug.

"Never took you for a softie, Samus." David said teasingly, obviously referencing what she had said earlier. She grinned when he said this. The two broke away from

the embrace and went to the Mansion to get into their beds. Tomorrow would begin a new time in David's life. The time to live life.


	6. A Clean Slate

The next morning, David awoke at 7:00AM. He had never been a heavy sleeper. He never knew why this was, but the nightmares he would get due to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) sure didn't help. He remembered those nights after Zanzibar Land. He probably got four hours of sleep at max at that time. But after his last mission, he's been able to go to sleep normally. He went to his closet and got dressed for the day. He then checked his cell phone. His phone showed a notification that indicated he had one unread text message. Snake only knew how to do very basic things on a cell phone. The only features he really needed was the ones that involved communication, and that's texting and calling. David checked the message and saw that it was from Otacon.  
It said "_Meet me at the Mushroom Kingdom Café 9:00"_  
David was a bit surprised. He thought that Otacon had went back to Earth after he showed the video of his final mission. He was definitely going to meet Otacon there to see what was going on. Problem was, he had no idea where the Mushroom Kingdom Café was. He obviously knew it was in the Mushroom Kingdom, but there's a reason it's called a Kingdom, it's definitely not a small place. Luckily just the person he needed was walking down the hall. It was none other than Mario's brother Luigi.  
"Hey Luigi!" David said to him.  
"Oh, hello David how are you doing today?"  
"Pretty good Luigi. Say, you wouldn't mind doing a small favor for me would you?"  
"Of course not, just as long as it's small like you say it is."  
"Don't worry. I have a friend that wants to me to meet him at the Mushroom Kingdom Café. I don't know how to get there, and I was wondering if you could drive me."  
"Oh well if that's all then of course I can bring you there. Really great place. Come with me."  
Luigi took David to the garage. They found Luigi's car and Luigi got inside. Luigi had a pretty nice car. It looked somewhat like a convertible. Luigi started the car and the engine started up.  
"Alright David, hop on in!" Luigi said.  
David got in the passenger seat, and then Luigi began driving.  
"This is a pretty nice car you got here Luigi." David said.  
"Oh thanks. It actually used to be a racing kart. But when the racing cup was over, I had a car that only could seat one person. So I decided to convert into a car with room for two."  
"You modified the car by yourself?"  
"Sure did. I'm pretty good with cars believe it or not."  
"Ha. Never knew that about you."  
David had always taken a liking to Luigi. He thought he was a real laid back guy, and felt that he was underrated by the public and that he deserved more respect then he usually gets. They had made conversation for the entire ride and they finally made it to their destination.  
"Thanks for the ride Luigi." David said.  
"Anytime friend." Luigi said.

There was something he noticed while talking with Luigi in the car. Something that felt good to him. It was that Luigi talked to him like he was a person. He wasn't scared, he wasn't intimidated, and he wasn't staring in disgust at the burn marks on his face. Even the people he considered to be friends at home, with the exception of Otacon, had always talked to him as Snake. They never looked at him or talked to him as a regular man. But here it was different. The Smashers looked past the legend and they saw David. The minute he asked to be referred to as David, they immediately did so. They were so different from the people on Earth. David thought about Earth. He wondered what would become of it now that he had ridden the world from the Patriots control. He wanted Otacon to inform him of anything new that was happening on Earth. David believed that Otacon was there to tell him about what was happening.

David entered the Café. He looked around and he saw Otacon at a table. Otacon waved to him and gestured him to come to the table.  
"Hey David." Otacon said.  
"Otacon, good to see you." David said.  
They shook each other's hand and changed it to a friendly embrace. They then sat down at their table.  
"So Otacon, what's going on?" David asked.  
The smile on Otacon's face soon disappeared and turned into a frown. David knew something was up, and it isn't good.  
"What's wrong Otacon?"  
Otacon sighed before he began to speak.  
"David…I know that you wanted to see what's next for the new generation. I did do but…"  
Otacon stopped, looking like he was having trouble getting what's next to come out of his mouth.  
"I'm sorry David but unfortunately, the future isn't looking good." Otacon finally said with sorrow.  
"What do you mean?" David asked.  
"I found out something, something not good at all." Otacon said.  
"Otacon, what is it." David said trying not to raise his voice.  
"David, the production of cyborg ninjas is increasing rapidly…" Otacon said  
"What!?" David said in a much loader voice.

The Cyborg Ninja project. David and Otacon hated it just as much as the child soldier projects. Two of David's friends, Frank Jaegar and Jack, had been turned into Cyborg Ninjas. While it allowed them to stay alive from critical injuries, David believed that there had to be an alternative from creating them into killing machines. So this was what the future of the world was to be? A new age of warfare, fought be humans beings turned into robotic killers. He thought humanity would be able to change itself for the better when the Patriots had been destroyed. Looks like he was wrong.  
"I'm sorry this happened David. I thought things would get better."  
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about Otacon."  
They had their meal as Otacon discussed the new Cyborg Ninja Program. He had found that new designs for Exoskeleton Models had been created and leaked onto the internet, Similar to how Metal Gear REX was leaked onto the black market. Now all nations had the knowledge to create Cyborg Ninjas. While the child soldier project was losing popularity because of it, was it really any better? People would still have their lives ruined and would know nothing except war.

After they finished their meal, David and Otacon were silent for a moment. Otacon stood up and broke the silence.  
"I'm going to go back to Earth, I'll keep you informed of what's going on."  
He began to leave the restaurant. But he stopped when David spoke.  
"Otacon wait! Is Sunny with you?" David said.  
"Yes, she's just outside why?" Otacon asked.  
"Don't go back to Earth, there's nothing left for us there anymore."  
"What are you saying David?"  
"We did our duty Otacon. There's no reason for us to be involved with the world's problems. Our job is finished, we need to pass it on to the next generation. I don't want you to watch and suffer as the world goes into a new crisis. It's time for you and I to start a new life."  
"Start a new life?"  
"Here. Otacon."  
Otacon was speechless.  
"You, me, Sunny, we can all start our new lives here." David said  
"I…I…don't know." Otacon said.  
"I think you do know Otacon."  
After a minute of silence, Otacon finally made a decision.  
"Alright, let's do it." Otacon said and smiled at David.  
David returned the smile, and David and Otacon performed their secret handshake.  
"I'll go tell Sunny." Otacon said and left the restauraunt.

David returned to the Mansion. When he got to the Mansion's living room, the intercom turned on.  
"David, please report to Master Hands office. Thank you." the voice on the intercom said.  
"I wonder what this is about." David asked himself.  
David went to Master Hand's office.  
"David, good to see you. Please have a seat." Master Hand said.  
"Alright. So what's this about?" David said.  
"It's about many things actually. I don't want to take up too much of your time, so I'll just get straight to it."  
"Master Hand put a clipboard down on the table with some documents on the table.  
"What are these?" David asked.  
"These are your medical reports given to me by Samus…they don't look good at all."  
David chuckled at this. He knew what was coming next.  
"David, I'm afraid you won't be able to compete in the Tournaments."  
"Fine by me." David answered.  
"Really? You're not going to challenge me on this? You're not going to argue with me and say that you're perfectly capable of fighting?"  
"No because I'm obviously not in the condition to. I'm not here to fight."  
"Then what are you here for David?"  
"To live my life, to spend the time I have left with people that treat me like a human being. And above all, to help people. To teach them the things I've learned throughout my life that can help them with their life."  
"Ok, if that's the case, you're more than welcome to stay here. But I like to ask you something."  
"And what's that?"  
"You can stay here but I want one thing of you. A lot of the Smashers here have certain problems and I believe that you're the only one capable of helping them."  
"Why me?"  
"Because of the things you've learned in life. I expect you to help them when they need help. Ok?"  
"Yeah ok…but I still don't understand. Why am I the only one that can help them."  
"You'll find out soon enough. Ok thank you for stopping by, you can leave now."  
And with that David left Master Hand's office with so many questions going through his head. He just decided not to think about it for now. It was getting late and he decided to get some sleep.

David woke up the next morning, again at 7:00AM. Like always, he got dressed and went down to the kitchen. He got himself some coffee and turned on the television. All of a sudden, David heard a woman scream outside of the mansion.  
"What the hell!" David screamed and jumped off the couch and began running outside.


	7. This Was No Accident

**Here's Chapter 7 of this story. First I want to thank everyone who has reviewed my story, especially Loke. Loke, thank you for your review. It feels good to see another person who feels the way I do about the human side of Solid Snake. And thank you for addressing the issue of grammar and spacing errors. I know they are there and I'm going to go back and fix those errors the best I can. And in the future, if you ever see a error in my chapters, please inform me of it and I'll go and fix them. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy chapter 7.  
**

* * *

David made his way outside the mansion. He had grabbed his M4A1 Assault Rifle on the way out, just in case. David had always been taught that if you don't know the details of a situation, get a gun. This was good advice for him, he couldn't count how many times he went into a unknown situation with a gun and ended up having to use it in order to survive. But he had hoped that this wouldn't be one of those situations. Another thing he brought was a first-aid kit. Another thing he didn't know was whether someone was hurt or not.

He had made it outside and saw what the problem was. Fortunately, he wasn't going to have to use his assault rifle. Unfortunately, he was going to need to use that first-aid kit from the looks of it. He saw that several of the Smashers were gathered around in a formation of a circle. Someone had definitely gotten hurt. He was able to see between the crowd that Zelda was lying on the ground and she was bleeding. David suspected that Ganondorf was up to this.  
"Everyone get out of the way!" David yelled as he made his way through the crowd.  
When he got through the crowd, he was surprised to see that Ganondorf was there too, with injuries as well. He was down on his knee, and it looked like he had only recently gotten up. David looked on the ground and saw that there was a small crater in the ground and surrounding it was black ash. David knew that this meant a bomb had detonated and Zelda and Ganondorf were caught in the explosion. Ganondorf wasn't up to this after all, but someone definitely was. David pushed that thought aside, there were more important matters at hand right now.

"Ganondorf! What happened?" David asked loudly as he kneeled down towards Zelda and began to check her injuries. Ganondorf's injuries were not as severe as Zelda, he was shaken up but he looked like he would be fine after some minor treatment. Zelda was a different story.  
"Me and Zelda were about to fight. And then an explosion occurred. I was farther from the explosion, but not very far. However Zelda was right next to the explosion." Ganondorf said  
"Can you walk?" David asked him.  
"I'll be fine, I can walk" Ganondorf said almost arrogantly.  
He stood up weakly, but after taking a step, he immediately fell down again. While his injuries weren't severe, he still wasn't in the condition to walk. He looked into the crowd and saw Donkey Kong in the crowd.  
"Donkey Kong, do me a favor and help Ganondorf to the hospital." David said.  
Donkey Kong gave him a nod, and he carried Ganondorf to the hospital. Now it was time to attend to Zelda's injuries.

"Alright everyone stand back!" David yelled. The Smashers obeyed the request.  
David then got out a Syptic and disinfectant which he applied to Zelda's bleeding cuts that were at her arms, legs, and head. He then wrapped the cuts with bandages. He looked towards Zelda's stomach and saw that there was a large gash and it was causing her to lose blood quickly. There wasn't anything he could do to attend to that injury except stop the bleeding so he could get her to the hospital where there was proper equipment for the gash. He began applying pressure to the wound so that the blood could clot. After several minutes, the bleeding finally stopped. He then applied gauze to it and wrapped it with bandages. He had finally managed to stabilize Zelda. She also had burns on her body but he would leave that to the hospital, right now the main focus was to treat that gash.  
"Oh my god! David! Is she going to live!" Peach cried as she arrived, very worried about her friend.  
"Don't worry Peach. I was able to treat her cuts, and I stopped the bleeding for now. I need to get her to the hospital now! Where is the nearest one?" David asked  
"It's not that far north from here. You can get there on foot." Peach said.  
"Got it." David said.  
David picked Zelda up and cradled her into his arms. He stood up and began carrying her to the Hospital.  
"Don't worry Zelda, you're not dying on my watch." David said to Zelda even though she was unconscious.

* * *

After a few minutes of walking, David had arrived at the hospital. He went through the automatic door and entered the lobby.  
"This woman needs attention now!" David yelled.  
"Don't worry sir, we'll attend to her immediately." A nearby nurse said who then ran off to get a rolling bed for Zelda. David heard some slight moaning from Zelda. He looked down and saw that she had regained consciousness.  
"Uh…D-David." She said quietly.  
"It's ok Zelda, you're going to be fine." David told her.  
"Thank you…David." Zelda said and then put her hand on the burned left side of David's face.  
Two nurses arrived with a rolling bed and David set her down on the bed. The nurses then brought her to a room.

* * *

David had taken a seat in the lobby after Zelda had been taken into the emergency room. He had been there for two hours, and he wouldn't leave until he got an update on Zelda's condition. Finally, a doctor came to the lobby and walked towards David.  
"You're Mr. David right?" the doctor asked.  
"Yeah. How is she doctor?" David asked  
"Don't worry David, she's going to be perfectly fine. I believe she'll be home within a week."  
David sighed with relief once he heard this.  
"David. I want to ask you something." The doctor said.  
David then nodded to the doctor, giving him his full attention.  
"While we were operating on her, we noticed that she had been given first aid attention. Was it you that performed first aid on her?"  
"Yeah it was. Why?" David asked.  
"Because I think you need to know that you're the reason why she's still alive. You saved her life David. You're a hero Mr. David." The doctor told David.  
David had been called a hero several times in his life, and he always hated it. However, it felt different this time. He realized that in the past, he had been called a hero for his acts as Solid Snake, the soldier. He had been called a hero for stopping nuclear war, but took away lives in the process. But this was different. It wasn't Solid Snake that was being called a hero. It was David. And he was being called a hero for saving a life, not taking it away. For the first time in his life, instead of debating with someone about how he's not a hero, he just smiled.  
As the doctor was heading back to the emergency room, David called out to him.  
"Wait, Doctor." David said.  
"Yes David?" the doctor replied.  
"I just want to know, how did she get a gash like that from an explosion?" David asked.  
"Actually, the injuries she got from the explosion were the cuts and burns, cuts must have been from debris hitting her. But, from the look of it, the gash was a result of being stabbed." The doctor said.  
"Stabbed?"  
"This definitely wasn't an accident David. This was a planned attack."  
David was thinking the same thing. The question was, who was the attacker?

* * *

A few hours later, David was back at Smash Mansion. He was in the kitchen sitting at a table with Otacon. David told Otacon about the events that took place that morning.  
"This is strange David. Very strange. Ganondorf, Zelda's biggest enemy, was not only not the one who did the attack, but he was a victim as well. So if Ganondorf wasn't the one who did it, I can't imagine another suspect." Otacon said.  
"What I'm wondering is how this attacker stabbed Zelda. The attack happened in front of several witnesses, and they all say they didn't see anyone stab Zelda. Needless to say, whoever pulled this off is pretty damn good. We're going to find out who this guy is Otacon." David said.  
"I'm with you all the way David. Don't worry, I'll investigate as soon as possible."  
"All right Otacon. But don't let this take up all your time, ok? The world isn't at stake." David said  
"Don't worry David, I'll keep it in moderation." Otacon assured his friend.

David was in the living room watching TV. Link entered the living room and began making his way towards David.  
"Hey David?" Link said.  
David turned off the TV. He knew this wasn't going to be a short conversation of small talk.  
"What's going on Link?" David asked.  
"First I want to thank you for saving Zelda's life. You should know that you're the only one out of us all that knew how to treat her wounds." Link said.  
David had been getting praise and thanks all day long about what he did that morning.  
"Well, you're welcome." David responded.  
"I should have been there, I could have protected her!" Link said with rage.  
"Link, stop. Don't get mad at yourself for this, this was in no way your fault." David said.  
"I'm supposed to protect her, but I failed to!" Link said with a tone of both anger and sorrow.  
David knew where Link was coming from. He remembered back at Shadow Moses when Meryl was shot by Sniper Wolf and captured, he blamed himself for being unable to protect him. While he hated Liquid, David's twin brother did give him good advice while disguised as Master Miller, one of David's mentors during his days with FOXHOUND. David relayed this advice to Link.  
"Link, you can have regrets, it's only natural. But don't beat yourself up over the past. That road leads to madness. Believe me." David told Link.  
Link was silent for a while, but he finally spoke.  
"You're right David. But I want to do something, I want to find the attacker."  
"Well you're in luck Link. Me and Otacon are investigating on who the attacker is. I'll make a deal with you. As soon as we find the guy who did this, we'll tell you, and you can do what you do from there. Deal?" David said to Link as he extended his hand for a shake.  
"Alright, deal." Link said as he shook David's hand.

David went to bed shortly after the conversation. While he was the only one that was able to perform first aid on Zelda, he still had doubts on whether he was the only one that can solve the Smasher's problems. David decided to wait for the next day, and see what it has in store.


	8. Someone to Fight For

After waking up, David went through his morning routine. He received a phone call. After the end of the call, David went to Otacon's room and knocked on his door.  
"Otacon. It's David. Can you open up?"  
Otacon opened his door.  
"What's going on David?" Otacon asked.  
"I just got a phone call from Samus. Zelda is feeling well now and the hospital is allowing visitors to see her. Peach and Samus are with her right now." David said.  
"Oh well that's great David!"  
"Yeah, it is. So come with me, we're going to the hospital."  
"You don't have a car David." Otacon said.  
"I know that, but the hospital is only a five minute walk from here. That's how I was able to get Zelda over there in time on foot. Now let's go."

* * *

David and Otacon began their walk to the hospital. On their way there, David started a conversation.  
"Hey Otacon? What do you think about Peach?" David asked.  
"About who?" Otacon said.  
"Peach. You know, the princess in the pink dress?"  
"Oh her. Well, I think that she's a very nice woman."  
David chuckled when he said this.  
"Yeah, she sure is a sweetheart." David said.  
After a brief silence, David began talking again.  
"You know? I think you should ask her out."  
"What!?" Otacon said in shock.  
"Yeah, you two would make a good couple." David said with a smirk.  
"Oh come on David, I'm not even in her league." Otacon said.  
"Shut up Otacon. I saw the way you two were looking at each other that night where I told my story. You like her, and she likes you." David said.  
"Ok fine David, yeah I like her."  
"Ha! I knew it." David said with a smile on his face.  
"So what's the problem then, why don't you just ask her out?"  
"David…I…I just…"  
"Otacon…what is it? Come on, you can tell me."  
"I just don't want to lose someone again." Otacon said silently with sadness.  
David was silent. He knew what Otacon was referring to. It was how three women that he loved all died within ten over the past ten years. Sniper Wolf, a member of the rogue FOXHOUND unit that Otacon had fallen in love with, but was then killed by David's own hand. Emma Emmerich, Otacon's stepsister who was killed by Vamp, a vampire like man who was a member of Dead Cell. And most recently, Naomi Hunter, who had destroyed her nanomachines that were keeping a terminal cancer in her body from killing her due to the guilt she had from her actions in the past.  
"Otacon…that's not going to happen."  
"Yes it will David! I'm cursed! Every woman that I love always dies, and I'm always left alone!" Otacon yelled as tears began to fall from his eyes.  
"Otacon, you're not cursed. You understand?" David said trying to convince his friend.  
"Otacon…listen to me. If you're going to blame anyone for the death of those women, then it should be me."  
Otacon looked up at David when he said this and had a look of confusion on his face.  
"What are you talking about David?"  
"I killed Sniper Wolf. Raiden and I weren't fast enough to stop Vamp from stabbing Emma. I was the reason why Naomi did the things that she regretted so much."  
There was silence between the two friends. After a couple of minutes, Otacon had stopped crying, and the look of sadness was replaced by a look of confidence.  
"You know what David? You're both right and wrong." Otacon said with no sadness in his voice.  
"What?" David said confused at what his friend was saying.  
"You're right, I'm not cursed. I'm not the reason they died. But you're also wrong that you're the reason they are. Neither of us were responsible for their deaths. Wolf made her choice to associate herself with a terrorist group. Emma made the decision to be involved with Arsenal Gear. And Naomi made the decisions that she felt guilty about by her own will, and she chose to destroy her nanomachines. In a way, the only people responsible for their deaths were them."  
David was very shocked that Otacon was saying this. He didn't disagree with what he was saying. The reason he was shocked was because Otacon had finally done something that David never thought he would do. He moved on.  
"I'm not going to let their deaths hold me back any longer. I'm going to go on with my life." Otacon said proudly.  
"I'm proud of you Otacon." David said smiling at his friend. Otacon returned the smile.  
"Come on David, let's get to the hospital."

* * *

David and Otacon arrived at the hospital. The entered and went to the front desk to speak with the receptionist.  
"Hello David. What can I do for you today?" the receptionist said.  
"We're here to see Zelda. Would that be ok?" David asked.  
"Well of course. She is in room 107."  
"Thanks"  
David and Otacon went to room 107 and knocked on the door. The door was opened by none other than Peach.  
"David! Hal! Oh, it's so great to see you two!" Peach cried, giving both of them a hug.  
"Hey Peach. It's good to see you." David said.  
David and Otacon went into the room and saw Zelda in her hospital bed, with Samus and Zelda sitting in chairs beside her.  
"Hello David and Hal. It's so nice of you to come and see me." Zelda said sweetly.  
"How are you feeling Zelda?" David asked.  
"I'm doing so much better, thank you. I wouldn't be if you hadn't been there for Me. Thank you David."  
"Don't mention it."  
Suddenly Samus spoke out.  
"David, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" she said.  
"Uh…yeah. Sure thing Samus." David replied looking confused.  
David and Samus stepped outside Zelda's room and shut the door.

"So, I was told by the doctor that if it wasn't for this guy named David who gave Zelda first aid and stopped the bleeding from her stomach and then brought her to the hospital, Zelda would have died." Samus said jokingly.  
"Oh really? That David fellow must be a really nice guy." David said playing along with Samus.  
"David…you're just…" Samus began to speak in a more sincere tone.  
"I'm just what?"  
"You're an amazing man David."  
David chuckled when she said this.  
"What exactly is it that makes me amazing?" David asked  
"You saved her life David. To me you show more humanity than any of the other human smashers. You have so much care for other people and you put yourself before others."  
David was quite shocked that this was being said to him. He had never thought of himself as a man. He thought of himself as a shadow in the form of a man. He thought he was the least caring individual out of every smasher. To be told the opposite of this was very weird to him, but not in a bad way.  
"Thanks for the compliment." He said sincerely.  
"You deserve it David." Samus said sweetly.  
The two were quiet for a minute, then continued with the conversation  
"I just want to find out who the hell did this." Samus said  
"Otacon and I are working on it." David said.  
"What? You are?"  
"Yeah. We're investigating and trying to find any info we can on this. Hopefully once we get enough info we can find out who the attacker was."  
"I want in." Samus said.  
"Alright sure, you can help. I'll find something you can do to help. First I need to talk to Zelda about what she saw during the event, if she remembers that is."

* * *

While Samus and David were talking outside, Otacon, Peach and Zelda had a conversation of their own.  
"So Hal. How have you been doing?" Peach asked sweetly.  
"I'm doing very good. In fact, I think I feel better than ever." Otacon said.  
"That's great Hal! You do look much happier than the last time I saw you." Peach said.  
"I agree. I sense much joy in you. Did something good happen today?" Zelda asked.  
"Let's just say I got a big problem out of my life today." Otacon said.  
"How is Sunny by the way?" Peach asked.  
"She's doing very well actually. I thought she would have some trouble adjusting to living here, but she did it quickly and she gets along great with the other kids."  
"Well good for her! I like Sunny, she's a very sweet little girl."  
"Yeah she is. She's been a little upset lately. She wants to learn to cook things besides eggs and I can't teach her because I don't know how to cook." Otacon said.  
"I can teach her about cooking Hal." Peach said.  
"Really?" Otacon asked  
"Oh definitely. Peach is skilled in cooking all sorts of dishes. Not to mention she makes a very delicious cake." Zelda said.  
"So what do you say Hal?" Peach asked.  
"I don't see why not." Hal said  
Peach smiled at Hal and Hal the same to her. Suddenly, the door opened and Samus and David entered the room.

"Alright, visiting hours are almost over so we need to get started Otacon." David said.  
David then looked to Zelda and Peach.  
"After yesterday's events, Otacon and I decided to investigate and find out who the attacker is so we can stop him. If he figures out that Zelda is still alive then he'll definitely try again. We need to gather whatever info we can. We asked everyone who was near the scene when it happened if they saw anybody stab Zelda and they all said no. Ganondorf was caught in the explosion and was unconscious while it happened. So the last person I can ask is you Zelda. First off, were you knocked unconscious immediately following the explosion?"  
"No, I was still conscious after it happened, not for too long though." Zelda answered.  
"What did you see before you went unconscious?" David asked.  
"Well, my vision was very blurry while I was still awake. But I saw a figure that was completely black just appear right over me. It also looked like it had blood red eyes. Whatever it was, it must have been the one that stabbed me, because as I was looking at him, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. The figure then disappeared, and I lost consciousness."  
"The figure. Did it look human?" Otacon asked.  
"Yes, it did. But that doesn't mean it was human."  
"That is true." David said in agreement.  
Back on Earth, David and Otacon would never agree to the existence of mythical creatures or the supernatural. David especially. But this world was obviously different. For starters, during the Subspace Emissary, David and the other Smashers came across several enemies that were not human. And just to further prove Zelda's statement about the attacker not being human just because he looked like one, he thought of Tabuu, the one who led the Subspace army. His figure was that of a human, but he was blue and holographic looking as well as transparent.  
"David it appears to me that whatever this attacker is, it has the ability to turn invisible at will. That's how it was able to attack Zelda unseen."  
Suddenly a nurse came in the room.  
"Sorry visiting hours are over, you four will have to leave now." The nurse said referring to David, Otacon, Samus and Peach.  
"Alright. Thanks for everything Zelda. We'll come visit you tomorrow." David said  
"You're welcome David. See you all soon." Zelda said as her visitors left the room.

* * *

David, Samus, Otacon and Peach were standing outside the hospital. David and Samus were talking with each other near the entrance to the hospital.  
"A full black figure with blood red eyes. Damn." Samus said.  
"Yeah, sounds pretty freaky. You ever encountered something like it in your career?" David asked.  
"No I haven't. I'd think that a creature like that would be a part of Zelda and Link's culture."  
"You don't say." David said  
David looked at Otacon and Peach walking together, and a smirk grew on his face.  
"Hey Samus?" David said with the grin still on his face.  
"What's up?" she replied.  
"What do you think about Otacon and Peach?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I think they'd make a pretty good couple. What do you think?"  
"Oh. Yeah I think they would. They look kinda cute together. I think it's about time she had an actual man in her life. Someone who's not half her size, actually will shave, and knows something about being in a relationship." Samus said in an obvious reference to Mario. Snake began to laugh at the reference.

Otacon and Peach were sitting on a bench somewhat farther away from David and Samus. Otacon noticed a very frightened look on Peach's face.  
"What's wrong Peach? You look worried. Very worried." Otacon asked.  
"Oh Hal, I'm very scared. With that thing still out there I don't feel safe. What if he tries to kill me?" Peach said as she started to cry.  
"Peach, me and David are going to find that thing and put an end to it. As long as it's still out there I promise I won't let it do anything to you. It will have to go through me if it wants to get to you." Otacon said confidently.  
Peach wiped the tears from her eyes.  
"You will?" She asked still sobbing a bit.  
"Of course I will Peach. I won't allow anything to happen to you." Otacon assured her.  
"Oh thank you Hal!" Peach said and pulled Otacon into a hug.

David was watching the entire scene.  
"Aw, well isn't that cute?" Samus said in a teasing voice.  
"Yeah, but now it's time for him to seal the deal." David said as he turned on his codec.  
Otacon and Peach were still hugging. Otacon's codec began to beep during the hug. He answered it without breaking from the hug.  
"Alright Otacon. You did great, but now you got to finish the job. Go ahead and ask her out. Go ahead and do it." David said and then disconnected from the call.  
Otacon looked at David and Samus with a slight amount of irritation his face. David was waving at him with a grin on his face and Samus was giggling. Otacon was just thankful that Codec calls could only be heard by the people who were in them, so Peach couldn't hear anything that David said. However David was right. He liked her, and this was the time to ask the question.  
"Peach… would you like to have dinner somewhere tomorrow?" Otacon asked  
"I'd love to Hal!" Peach cried with happiness.  
"Great! I'll pick you up at seven." Otacon said with joy.  
Otacon looked over to David, who gave him a thumbs up. Otacon just smiled at his friend.

* * *

The group left the hospital and headed back to the Mansion. The group was chattering about different things on the way there. They finally arrived.  
"Home sweet home." Otacon said.  
"Yep, home sweet…" David stopped after he turned his head and saw something. Something bad. He saw Fox McCloud with his blaster out and pointing it at his partner from Star Fox, Falco Lombardi, who was lying on the ground unconscious. The other three and the group turned and saw this.  
"Oh my god!" Samus said quietly and drew her pistol out.  
"Otacon, take Peach and get inside the Mansion!" David said as he drew out his Mk.23 SOCOM pistol and took aim towards Falco  
"But David…"  
"NOW!" David screamed before he pulled the trigger of his gun which then shot out a .45 ACP bullet. The bullet made impact with Fox's blaster and caused it to be thrown out of his hand. David had intended to hit the blaster. He didn't know why Fox was doing what he's doing but he knew that something was wrong with him. He knew Fox, and knew that he would never become evil. It was because of this that David didn't shoot to kill.

Otacon obeyed David's order and ran with Peach into the mansion. Samus stayed with David to assist him.  
"Samus, that gun has non-lethal firing right?" David asked.  
"Yeah, why?" Samus asked.  
As she asked this, Fox began running towards David.  
"If things get sour during this, I want you to stun Fox."  
"You're going to fight him hand to hand?!"  
"Yeah."  
"But David, you're body. You're in no condition to fight!" Samus yelled.  
"You'd be surprised." David said and began running towards Fox.  
"David!" Samus yelled as he ran.

David and Fox ran towards each other and stopped once they were just a few feet from each other. They stared at each other with intensity. This wasn't going to be a Smash Bros tournament Brawl. This was going to be a fight. A vicious, bloody, no holds barred fight. This fight was going to be different for David. He wasn't fighting as a soldier. He was fighting as a man, a man that was intent on protecting his friends. He had a reason to fight. He had someone to fight for. It was because of this, he felt stronger than ever.  
"All right. Let's go!"

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I wanna talk about a few things involving Chapter 9  
**1. As you can guess from the cliffhanger, chapter 9 will start with a fight scene. This will be the first fight scene I've ever written. I will try to make it a good or at least decent fight scene, but forgive me if it turns out to not be.  
2. I'm most likely going to put two OCs into the story starting with the next chapter. One will be a supporting character, and the other will be the antagonist. Now, I recently came across a story with an OC in it and the author stated the they would try not to make the character a Mary Sue.  
I had no idea what this meant so I looked into it. So yeah I know what it is now. I think it would be pretty hard to make the Antagonist a Mary Sue. All I can say about him is that he will be a smart and powerful villian, but he's not perfect.  
The supporting character is obviously most likely to come across as a Mary Sue, because he will be working with Solid Snake and other characters that I like. That and he will be a former soldier. I'm planning to have this character play a somewhat important role in the story. But I promise you these things.  
**1. This character won't be in the image of me.  
2. This character will not be some super bad ass that can go in and kill people without a scratch.  
****3. This character's back story will not have any affiliation with the events or characters of Metal Gear Solid or any of the Nintendo Games.  
****4. ****This character won't be the perfect soldier. This character will have his strengths, just like every character. But he will have his flaws, and several of them, and they will cause him to screw up and cause problems for him and/or the other characters.  
5. I'm not going to shove this character down your throat. He's not going to be in every scene, and if he's not in a scene, such as a scene of two characters having a conversation, he will not be the subject of the conversation. This story is focusing on David. I'm not going to forget that.  
6. Finally, this character won't just walk in and be loved by all the characters. If He is to be friends with any of the characters, it will have to be developed gradually at a fairly slow pace, not in a single conversation. And don't worry, this character will not have a romantic relationship.  
**

**If there is anything you would like to or not like to see from this Original Character, give me a PM and I'll take your advice into consideration (If it's not stupid of course.)  
**

**Chapter 9 will be uploaded very soon. Again, thanks for reading.  
**


	9. A Dark Nightmare

**This chapter took the longest to make obviously. I went through several ideas on how exactly it would go. I finally came up with this one cause I think it works. Just a few things I need to let everyone know.**

**1. I said that last chapter I would be introducing two OCs into the story. This will not happen. In fact, only the supporting character OC will appear, and in his appearance, you only get a description of what he looks like and the gun he's carrying, with the characters more focused on the gun than the person himself. So yeah, he appears in this chapter, but he's not really introduced.  
**

**Second, the villian OC I was talking about will not appear. He has been cut. Instead, I've replaced him with a canon villian that will suit the antagonist role much much better.  
**

**So here's Chapter 9. I hope you guys enjoy it.  
**

* * *

David and Fox McCloud began their fight. Samus was incredibly worried about David. She didn't think he would fare well in a fight with Fox. However like David told her, she would be surprised.

During the events of the Subspace Emissary, David used standard military CQB taught to him by Master Miller. This time, he was using CQC, an advanced fighting style invented by the Boss and Big Boss, the latter of whom taught David the style during his early days in FOXHOUND. This was the trick David had up his sleeve, new fighting moves. Ones that Fox would be unfamiliar with.

Fox was first to go on the offensive. He threw a kick, intending to strike David's ribs. David jumped back and away from the incoming kick. David dashed forward towards Fox and went on the offense, using a combination of two punches followed by a roundhouse kick followed by a spinning kick to the head. All four strikes were successful and Fox was knocked to the ground, but got back up in a second. Fox was quite shocked at being downed by someone with the body of an elderly man. Fox got back into his fighting position. Fox dashed towards David and began to strike with a flurry of punches. David's accelerated aging may have affected his health, but it didn't affect his reflexes that he developed throughout his military career. David knew what Fox was going to throw at him before he even attacked and blocked all of Fox's attempted strikes. Fox's attack took effect on his stamina just enough for him to leave an opening for David to give him a high knee strike to the head. The force of the strike caused Fox to be launched into the air into a backflip and land straight down on his stomach.

Samus stood by in amazement at what she was seeing. A couple of days ago, she took a scan of David's vitals and he was deemed unable to fight. She had told him that with the condition his body was in, he should be in a bed under medical supervision 24/7. She wondered how in the world he could go from that to fighting one of the most skilled Smashers on the entire roster with relative ease. Samus turned around and saw that over a dozen of the Smashers had come outside and were watching the fight with the same feeling of awe.

Fox continued his attempt to lay down some offense on David, but each time his attacks were either blocked, evaded, or worse, countered with an attack. David kicked Fox on the side of his leg with great force and knocked him off his feet and had him hit the ground on his side. As he staggered to get back up, he didn't know that David was behind him, lying in wait. Once, Fox got up, he was quickly grabbed and put into David's signature chokehold.  
"What the hell is wrong with you Fox? Why are you doing this?" David asked in a tone that demanded an answer.  
David's question was given no reply. Instead, Fox just began to struggle, trying to free himself from David's hold. David responded to this by tightening his grip, causing even more pain to Fox.  
"Answer me!" David demanded.  
David was once again given the same silent response as last time. David once again punished Fox's refusal to answer by tightening the grip on the chokehold, but also added something new to the mix. David took out his Stun Knife, a knife that could act as both a combat knife and a tazer, and pointed it at Fox's throat.  
"Start talking Fox! Why are you doing this?!" David demanded with more intensity than before.

Fox responded this time with words, but it was far from normal.  
"_For our King! For our salvation!"_ Fox answered in a voice that sounded like that of a demon.  
"What are you talking about!?" David yelled.  
"_Everyone has a shadow…David. A shadow that represents the darkness of their character. Everyone…except for you."  
_David had a look of complete confusion at what he was being told. The voice was so demonic and sent a chill throughout his body.  
"_You have no shadow, because you are one yourself. As long as someone follows you, they will never see the light. So if we shadows cannot prosper in a world of light, then we will create a world of darkness, by killing the light. Join us David! Lead us alongside the brother of darkness! He demands it!" _The voice said.  
After he said this, David saw Fox's eyes turn blood red, just like Zelda had described about the one who attacked her.

"What the hell!" David screamed and released Fox from the chokehold, turned Fox around to face him, and struck Fox's face with a punch that had the force of a speeding truck. Fox flew far backwards. But while he was still airborne, a pure black humanoid creature with red eyes ejected out of Fox's body and fell on its back. All the smashers were speechless at this demon of a creature that had fallen out of Fox's body. The creature got to its feet and fled into the nearby forest at an incredible speed. David knew he couldn't catch the creature, so he let it escape and began to make his way towards Fox to check on him.

"Fox! Are you alright?" David asked with concern.  
"I'm a little banged up, but nothing serious. I'll be fine. But what the hell happened? Why am I here? Why am I banged up in the first place?" Fox began to ask questions frantically.  
"You mean you don't remember?"  
Samus ran up to David looking very concerned.  
"David are you all right? Are you hurt?" She asked.  
"I'm fine Samus, don't worry." David said assuring her.  
Otacon and Peach ran to the both of them.  
"David! That thing! What the hell was it!" Otacon asked, still shocked from the event.  
"I don't know Otacon, but whatever it was, it was definitely the thing that attacked Zel…"  
Before he could finish, gunshots were heard and the source of the sound was in the forest. A shriek of a demon followed the gunshots and echoed.  
"Samus! Come with me!" David ordered.  
Samus and David ran to the forest to investigate the source of the sound.

* * *

"How much farther do think we'll have to go David?" Samus asked.  
"Not very far, from what I heard we should be arriving at the location of the gunshot in a few seconds. Maybe we'll even make it in time to see the shooter." David answered.  
David's prediction was correct. The two made their way up a hill and were at the location of were the shot was fired. This was indicated by a bullet casing and corpse on the ground. The corpse was none other than the Shadow figure that David had encountered just minutes ago. The body began to dissolve until finally there was nothing left of it. After the body had disappeared, David looked North and saw a man walking away from the location. The man was blonde, wore a green long sleeved shirt, and blue jeans. But the more puzzling thing about him was the rifle he was holding. This rifle looked nothing like any standard military rifle that he had ever seen. Soon enough the man walked over a hill and was gone from their sight.  
"Well looks like we know who the shooter is." Samus said.  
" Do you know him?" David asked.  
"No. I've never seen someone that looked like that guy in my life."  
David was still thinking about the gun he had seen the man carrying. He began looking around for bullet casings. Samus had noticed this.  
"What are you looking for David?"  
"A bullet casing. That gun looked like nothing I had ever seen before. I want to figure out what caliber it is so I can know what we can kill these things with."  
"David that gun doesn't shoot bullets." Samus answered.  
"What do you mean? You know what type of gun that was?" David asked.  
"Yes. That was a standard issue plasma carbine rifle. "  
"Plasma? Doesn't that arm cannon on your Power Suit fire that?"  
"Yes it does."  
"So, that gun…does it use the same technology as your plasma cannon?"  
"Yes it does, although my arm cannon is more advanced. Those carbines were made for infantry man to be able to shoot small shots of plasma in the field. Those carbines do not have the ability to fire a charge of plasma energy like my arm cannon does."  
"So, this guy is with the Galactic Federation." David asked.  
"I thought so at first, but then I noticed something different about his gun."  
"What's that?"  
"He had some sort of attachment on the gun that the gun wasn't meant for. It looked like something that would go on the assault rifles that you had used. It was a tube that had a trigger of its own. Looked to me that it would fire a very powerful projectile."  
"An M203 Grenade Launcher." David said in realization.  
"Whoever this man was David was very strange. I wouldn't consider him to be an ally." Samus said.  
"Yeah. I wasn't planning on it. Let's get back to mansion. I think we all deserve a breather for today."

* * *

Snake wanted to get everyone's minds off of the day's events, so when he and Samus got to the Smash Mansion, he invited them all to the living room. Otacon, Sunny, Peach, and Samus all arrived at David's apartment room. He had some steaks cooked for everyone. They were all surprised that David knew how to cook anything. After everyone had finished eating, David sat on the couch and watched television, quite separated from everyone else. He began to think of the things that the demon had told him earlier that day.  
"_You have no shadow, because you are one yourself. As long as someone follows you, they will never see the light._" The words rang in his head.  
These thoughts began making him feel uncomfortable. Finally something that he needed arrived. Someone to talk to. And that was the young boy that asked him for advice the day he told his story.

"Hey Mr. David!" Lucas said.  
David snapped out of the trance of bad thought he was in and was startled, but calmed himself down when he saw who was speaking.  
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you Mr. David."  
"No. No. It's fine Lucas, I'm just easy to startle nowadays. I am an old man you know?" David said humorously.  
Lucas laughed when David said this.  
"So how are things going Lucas? I haven't heard from you since a week ago whenever I told my story." David asked.  
"They've been going good. Really good as a matter of fact. My grades have gotten so much better in school."  
"School huh? That's great kid. A good education will do wonders for you in the future. You could even go to college, something I was never able to do. So how well have you been doing exactly?" David asked.  
"Well, I can't really explain it, but I was asked by my teacher what the reason was that I had improved all of a sudden. I told her that it was because you talked to me. She wrote this note and told me to give it to you, so that's why I wanted to find you."  
Lucas handed over the note to David. David opened the note and began reading it.

_Dear Mr. David  
I have no idea what you told Lucas, but whatever it was I'm so glad that you did. I've been Lucas' teacher for 4 years now, and I've always had a soft spot for him. But he was always looked so troubled. I'm sure that it had to do with his mother and father. I think it's only fair that you should know the effect that your words have had on him. He didn't have a good 1__st__ quarter. He either had Cs or Ds on all of his subjects. Whenever you talked to him, it was before the 2__nd__ quarter. I'm proud to say he's off to a tremendous start for the beginning of this quarter. He aced every graded assignment as well as the 1__st__ weekly test in every one of his classes. He's been much more social and has felt more comfortable talking to me and the other students. I think that he's got his eye on this girl he sits next to in class. Haha. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you this because I just wanted to assure you that your advice did not fall on deaf ears. You've done a great thing for a great kid David. You should be pround of yourself.  
-Sincerely  
Mr. Trosclair_

David put down the note with a look of disbelief on his face. Did this really happen? Did his words have such a positive influence on Lucas' life? David came back to his senses and smiled at Lucas.  
"This is great Lucas. It's awesome to see you doing such a great job." David said  
He paused for a few seconds, unable to think of what to say next until it finally came to him.  
"I'm…proud of you…Lucas." David said with difficulty, not because he was lying, but because he was never used to saying that to anyone.  
"Thanks David!" Lucas said and gave David an unexpected hug. David returned the hug. The two released each other from the hug.  
"David, I really wish that you were my dad." Lucas said nervously and then walked off, leaving David with his shock on what he had been told.

Samus had overheard the conversation and walked over to David.  
"What's the matter David? You're not planning on being a father?" She said jokingly.  
"Why would he look at me as a father figure? Out of all the people here, why me?" David asked Samus.  
"Maybe it's because you know what to say, you know how to help him with his problems. Above all, you always seem to be there for him. I think you'd be a great father David."  
"I don't think so."  
"Why not?"  
"I'm a weapon. I was created to be a war machine. I wasn't created to be a father and raise a family."  
"You know something David, you say that like it's law and that you went ahead and did that. From what you've told me, The Patriots created you and your brothers for beneficial reasons. But instead, you and your brothers all fought against the Patriots in some way, and then finally you destroyed them."  
David thought about what she said. He had never thought about that. She was right. Although he was a creation of the Patriots, he ironically was the one that took them down. Still, he couldn't be a father.  
"Well Samus, I still can't have a child, I'm sterile remember?" He reminded her.  
"Yeah well there is such a thing as adoption David."  
"I don't know anything about raising a child by myself. I'd need some help."  
"Well then, you fall in love with someone!" She said frustrated at how close minded David was being.  
"…Samus…I'm…" David began to speak.  
"Don't you dare say that you're incapable of love David!" Samus demanded.  
"I'm not it's just…I'm…I'm going…"  
"Come on David what is it?"  
"Samus…I'm going to die soon…" David finally forced the words out of his mouth.  
Both of them were silent for several minutes, looking away from each other. Tears began to form in Samus' eyes, but she wiped them away.  
"You're right. I'm sorry…I shouldn't of said anything." Samus apologized.  
"There's nothing to apologize for Samus." David said trying to comfort her.  
She got up from the couch and prepared to leave the room.  
"Besides." David began speaking "I don't think anyone would fall in love with me. A man whose only 42 years old but looks like he's 70, and has the left side off his face burned and has so many scars that he looks like he went to hell and back. What do you think?"  
Samus turned to David and smiled.  
"I think you'd be surprised. Some girls are into that kind of stuff."  
She and David both laughed.  
"David got up from the couch and walked towards Samus and hugged her.  
"Good night Samus."  
"Good night David." Samus said returning the hug.  
They parted ways and David went to his room and got ready for bed. He got in his pajamas and went over to his medicine cabinet in his bathroom. He wouldn't like what he would see. He reached for his bottle of sleeping pills, the pills he took at night so he could sleep without having nightmares or flashbacks caused by PTSD. He looked inside and saw that there was no pills left.  
"Oh shit…"  
David decided to try the best he could to get some sleep, and hoped that the nightmares would not occur. He fell asleep and everything was fine. Two hours later though, the nightmares came to haunt him

* * *

The image of Frank Jaegar being blown into pieces by a landmine was the first to flash in David's sleep. This caused him to toss and turn.

"_I'm here to end the nightmares Big Boss!"_  
"_For soldiers like you and me Snake, the nightmares never go away."_  
The image of David burning his father alive went through his head.  
"_Snake…Snake….I'm…your….father…."  
_

The memory of Ocelot's electric torture chamber ran through David's mind. He began to feel like his body was physically being electrocuted.

"_We're not tools of the government, or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing…the only thing I was good at. But, at least I always fought for what I believed in. Snake…farewell." _Frank Jaegar's voice rang through his head.  
The image of him being crushed by Metal Gear Rex flashed through his mind.  
"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOX!" David screamed in his sleep.  
_"You see! You can't protect anyone! Not even yourself!" _Liquid's voice said.

The image of where Raiden stopped Outer Haven from crushing David flashed in David's head. Following it was the image of Raiden nearly being killed from being crushed by Outer Haven.  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOO!" David screamed in his sleep and in his dream.  
"_ROOOOOOOOOSE!" _Raiden screamed.

Afterwards, David began to have nightmares of things that haven't happened in the past. They involved the Demon creatures torturing him or his friends.  
"STOP! NO! DON'T! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" David screamed out loud at what he saw in his dream.

* * *

Luigi was in the kitchen, which was very close to David's room. He was getting food out of the refrigerator, but then he heard a scream.  
"PLEASE DON'T HURT THEM! IT'S ME YOU WANT! DON'T DO THIS! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" David screamed and began to cry loudly.  
"HOLY SHIT!" Luigi screamed and ran towards David's room. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. Luigi couldn't bear to let his friend suffer in that room. He ran upstairs to the other rooms.  
"HELP! SOMEBODY WAKE UP HELP!" Luigi screamed.  
Everyone opened their doors including Samus and Otacon.  
"Luigi, what the hell is going on?" Samus asked looking quite irritated and wearing a nightgown.  
"It's David, he's in his room and he's screaming like he's being attacked or seeing someone being attacked! His doors locked, I couldn't get in!" Luigi said.  
"Oh no!" Otacon said in realization of what was happening.  
"What's happening to him Hal!" Samus asked.  
"He's having a PTSD induced nightmare! He sees flashbacks and situations that involve him seeing his friends getting hurt and he can't do anything about it!"  
Samus had heard enough. She ran down stairs immediately. She dashed towards David's room and kicked his door down.  
"DAVID!"  
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! PLEASE DON'T KILL THEM! WHY COULDN'T I PROTECT HER!"  
Samus got on David's bed and cradled his upper body in her arms, relaxing his head onto her shoulder. David was still crying and screaming but he began to quiet down when Samus began to talk to him in a soothing voice while caressing his head.  
"It's ok David, it's ok. I'm here for you David. I'm here."  
The screaming completely stopped and David just began to sob. She looked at David's body. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and she saw those scars that he told her about. He wasn't kidding about how many there were. She didn't care about that though, she was focused on calming David down. Finally, David woke up from his nightmare, and saw Samus.  
"Samus! You're alive!" David said before he pulled her into a hug.  
"Yes David, I'm fine. Everyone is fine. You just had a bad dream."  
"Oh. I'm sorry, you had to see that." David said still sobbing.  
"David it's fine, what matters now is that you get some sleep ok?" She said with him still in her arms.  
She laid him back down on his bed and put his covers over him. She began to make her way out of the room.  
"Samus wait!" David yelled.  
"What is it David?"  
"Please…don't leave me."  
A smile grew on Samus' face. She felt like David was a little toddler and she was the mother that the toddler went to to feel protected when he had a nightmare.  
"You got any room in that bed."  
David nodded and made some room for Samus to sleep with her. Samus got on the bed and layed beside David.  
"Sweet dreams David" she said gently.  
An hour later, they were both sound asleep.


	10. Love, Not War

David woke up the next morning. He had no knowledge of the traumatic episode that had happened last night. He turned to his right and was shocked at what he saw. It was the back of a beautiful woman with blonde hair. It was Samus. And she was in his bed. Shortly after, Samus turned around to face David. Once she saw him she smiled.  
"Well good morning David." She said sweetly.  
"Uh…good morning Samus…" David answered slowly.  
He was confused as to why Samus was in his bed with him. He didn't have any idea of what happened last night. Last thing he remembered was talking with Samus.  
"Uh…Samus…we didn't…do…well…you know?" David asked nervously.  
Samus chuckle when David asked this.  
"No David we didn't have sex." Samus said still laughing.  
"Oh ok. Well, why are you in my bed? Not that I don't want you here but…"  
"You uh…had some nightmares last night David."  
David frowned when she said this.  
"I see. The return of the good old PTSD nightmares. That's just great. So what happened?"  
"Luigi was in the kitchen and heard you screaming. He was worried about you and tried to open the door to help you, but the door was locked. He came upstairs and woke us all up to tell us. I came in here and I…well I helped to calm you down. I assured you that everyone was ok, because you were having nightmares that everyone here was being attacked from what you were screaming. Not to mention you were screaming about some of the things that happened in your previous missions."  
"Yeah. I tend to do that during the nightmares. So then what happened?"  
"Well after I calmed you down, I was going to leave the room, but you told me not to leave you. So I slept in the bed with you so you wouldn't have nightmares."  
"I see. Um…thanks. I'm sorry I was such a burden."  
"There's nothing for you to apologize for. I was more than happy to help you." Samus said.  
David smiled at her and bowed his head.  
"Must have been pretty ironic huh? Seeing the legendary Solid Snake crying like a child. I must of looked weak at that moment huh?" David asked.  
"Actually no, you didn't look weak. Now that I think about it, it makes you stronger."  
"Really? How so?"  
"David, there's a large amount of Galactic Federation Marine veterans who committed suicide sometime after service. They did because they couldn't take the trauma of what they saw during combat. But what they saw is nothing compared to everything that you saw during your career. I've never met a person who carries a heavier burden than you. Yet even with that burden, you still choose to live."  
"Yeah. There's a high count of veterans committing suicide on Earth as well. I'm…I'm not really sure why I haven't decided to kill myself now that I think about it. The only time I attempted it was at the end of the last mission. The only reason I tried it was because I had thought that I would become a biological weapon of mass destruction in a few months, and if I killed myself I would prevent that from happening. I was going to commit suicide for the sake of the world. But when I had the gun in my mouth, and about to pull the trigger…I pulled the gun out of my mouth and shot to the sky."  
There was complete silence that lasted a minute after he said this. David finally decide to brighten up the mood.  
"Well, let's get our day started. Zelda is being released from the hospital today. Let's go pick her up."  
David stood up from the bed and went to his closet to get a shirt to put on. Samus looked at his body and saw the scars that covered it. They looked much worse in the day light.  
"_How the hell is he still alive with all those scars?"_ Samus thought to herself.  
"Those sure are a lot of scars David…" Samus told David.  
"Yeah. Not very attractive is it?" David asked rhetorically.  
"Alright, I'm going to go get Otacon and Peach. We'll be waiting for you." David told Samus.  
"Ok. I'll be with you guys in a minute." Samus said.  
David gave her a nod and began making his way out of his room.  
"By the way, if my door was locked, how did you manage to…" David stopped when he saw that his door was knocked down. Needless to say this answered his question. Samus walked toward him to apologize.  
"David, I'm really sorry. I just couldn't let you…"  
"Don't apologize." David said cutting her off.  
Samus looked at David with a confused look on her face.  
"You care about me so much that you went as far as to kick my locked door down to help me?"  
"Y-Yes David. Of course I do." Samus answered.  
David just stood still bowing his head. He was deep in thought. For the first time, someone had helped to comfort him during his nightmares. Not to mention, she forced her way into his room when she found out it was locked. David had always been alone throughout his life. No one was ever with him to help him with these types of problems. But finally, there was someone there for him. While David thought about this, he didn't realize that a tear was dropping down his cheek. He had cried before, but it was from fear and panic from his nightmares while he was in a semi-conscious state. He was conscious, and he shed a tear out of happiness.  
"David? What's wrong, you're…you're crying." Samus said and walked over to him.  
David came back to his senses, and saw Samus walking towards him.  
"David, what's the matter? Why are you…" She was cut off when she was pulled into a hug by David.  
"T-Thank you." David said quietly.  
Samus responded by returning the hug.

* * *

David and Samus met with Peach and Otacon outside the mansion and began to make their way to the hospital to pick up Zelda. Before they began travelling, Link asked if he could tag along, and the group happily agreed. They arrived at the hospital and picked up Zelda, and they all went outside in the hospital's parking lot and made conversation.  
"You don't know how happy I am to finally be out of there." Zelda said with excitement.  
"We're all just happy that you're alive." Link told her.  
"I'm glad to say that while you were in the hospital we found the creature that attacked you." Otacon said.  
"Really? So it wasn't human. What did it look like?" Zelda asked.  
"It was like you said, completely black with blood red eyes. What's more important was what it was able to do. It possessed Fox somehow and attacked Falco in Fox's body." David said.  
"It left Fox's body once David kicked his ass." Samus said and gave a chuckle.  
David grinned and continued talking.  
"So after it left Fox's body it ran into the forest, we followed it and saw that it was killed by some guy who had blonde hair. Still haven't found that guy. I wonder…"  
David stopped talking when he noticed something strange. He saw what looked like an outline of a person. It was similar to if someone was wearing stealth camo.  
"David, is there something wrong?" Peach asked.  
David was not paying attention and didn't respond to the question. He was still looking at the distillation in the air that he saw. He was suspicious that it was an attacker using some sort of stealth camouflage. Then a sound of a pistol chamber being pulled back confirmed his suspicion.  
"SHIT!" David yelled.  
Out of his instincts of a soldier, David immediately pulled out his Mk.23 pistol and fired two rounds towards the distillation. Following the gunshots was the sound of a body collapsing. It was indeed an attacker, and whatever the cause of the attacker's invisibility was stopped working, and the attacker's corpse was revealed. It looked just like the Demon that attacked Zelda. David's friends were all shocked at what just happened.  
"Damn! There are more of these things?!" David yelled.  
Suddenly, David's codec began to ring. David's frequency was known by very few people he knew. He was sure none of them were calling. He put his finger to his ear and answered the call.  
"_David."_ The unknown caller said._  
_"Who is this? How do you know me?"  
_"Look David, there's no time to go into detail so I'm going to make this quick. An group of Shades are approaching your area ready to ambush you."  
_"Shades?"  
"_That's the type of monster you killed just now. That was an assassin Shade you just killed, the one's you're about to face are just infantry, so you don't have to worry about invisibility."_  
"How did you know I just killed one of those?"  
"_I'm close by. On the top of a hill near the hospital. I need you to make this call to where everyone can hear."  
_"Otacon, put this call on speaker."  
Otacon pulled out a small walkie talkie device, and set a frequency. The unknown caller could now be heard by the group.  
_"So here's what's going to happen. Shades are going to come to ambush you, many of them are using guns. Some of them will try to fight you hand-to-hand. I'm going to cover you the best I can from my position, but you're all going to have to contribute in a way."_  
"Just tell us what we need to do." David said  
_"David, I know you're Solid Snake, so I know you're the best one of the group when it comes to guns. There's an M4A1 I put in that bush next to that white car. When it comes to these things, do what you do when it comes to any enemy. Aim for the head." _  
David was quite shocked that the caller knew both his name and his codename.  
"_Samus, you're Power Suit would be great for this, but I take it you don't have it with you. You're paralyzer will still work great against Shades, no matter where you hit them. Set it to a more lethal function of course."  
_Samus did as the caller said.  
"_Link, use your arrows, boomerangs to pick off individual targets, and use your bombs if they're in groups."_  
Link took out his Bow and readied an arrow.  
_"Zelda. Your magic and light arrows are more effective than everyone else's weapons. Use that to you and your groups advantage. Snake, next to the M4 is a glock 18 and a super scope. Give the glock 18 to Dr. Emmerich and the Super Scope to Peach."_  
David grabbed the weapons and did as instructed.  
"_Alright everyone, they're almost here. Stick with the plan and work as a team. That's our only chance of getting out of this alive. Once, we do, I'll come down from this hill and personally explain everything. Good luck."  
_And with that the call ended.  
"We're going to have to trust him." David said.  
"What's the plan?" Link asked.  
"Let's form up at the entrance of the parking lot. Link, Otacon, you're with me. Samus, you lead Zelda and Peach. Get behind some cover, and do not under any circumstance, charge them. Understood?"  
Everyone nodded. David, Otacon, and Link positioned themselves at the right side of the road that enters into the parking lot, while Samus, Peach, and Zelda positioned themselves at the left side. There were cars and boxes to use as cover, so they had a good spot. Samus gave David a thumbs up to indicate that they were ready.  
"Alright everyone! Take aim!" David ordered.  
Everyone aimed their weapons towards the group of Shades that were coming. David noticed at the front of the group was a Shade that looked nothing like the others. In fact, it looked rather familiar. He had long hair, and it's outline showed that it was wearing a jacket. David saw Otacon looking worried about something, and he knew what it was.  
"Otacon."  
Otacon looked over to his friend  
"Don't worry, nothing is going to happen to her. I'll make sure of it."  
Otacon nodded to David. David took another look at the odd Shade creature at the front.  
"Wait, that Shade looks a lot like…"  
"BROTHER!" a familiar, British voice yelled out over a megaphone. It was the voice of Liquid Snake, David's twin brother.  
"LIQUID?!" David yelled in shock.  
"It's great to see you again brother. My god, you really haven't aged well have you?"  
Anger began to show on David's face.  
"This is so fitting isn't it Snake? Me, the brother of darkness, a shadow of Big Boss, being the leader of a group of shadows. And then you, the brother of light, leading a band of heroes to battle against me."  
Liquid paused for a moment, then continued to speak.  
"It's also rather ironic. You're a shadow just like me Snake. We're twins. You shouldn't be with a group of heroes. Because you're not a hero Snake. You're a murderer! You kill people because you enjoy it! I'm sure that's the reason why you went on all your missions. Because it gave you a reason to go on a killing spree!" Liquid said and began to laugh like a maniac.  
David growled with anger at Liquid telling him this.  
"That's why instead…you should be on this side. With your own kind. With the shadows. So I'm going to give you deal brother. The reason I'm here is so I can kill those four smashers. The smashers are the reason why me and the Shades can't take over this universe and turn it into a world for shadows. I'm not here to kill you or even you scientist friend. So here's the offer. I'm willing to forgive and forget brother! Join me and the Shades and we'll kill these four smashers. After that, we go to the Smash Mansion and have ourselves a good old killing spree!"  
"FUCK YOU LIQUID!" David screamed in response.  
"Oh well that's disappointing Snake. I guess you can just stay with your "friends" and die with them. Goodbye Snake." Liquid said and left the area.

The Shades took aim at David and his friends and began opening fire. As soon as the first few shots were fired, gunshots could be heard from a much farther distance and resulted in Shades collapsing on the ground dead. It was the man who called David on the codec, covering them from the hill like he had said. The Shades realized a sniper was picking their men off, and ceased fire on David and the others and began looking around for the sniper. David knew that this was an opportunity created for them to begin their assault.  
"Open fire now!"  
The entire group left cover and unloaded their weapons on the Shades, with a shadow falling to the ground every second. David, Samus, Otacon, and Peach used their weapons fast fire rate as an advantage to stay on the offensive. This allowed Zelda and Link to use their devastating attacks to take out the Shades in large groups. Three Shades had snuck behind David and his squad and tried a close quarters assault. Peach called out to them before they succeeded in their sneak attack. David kicked a Shade in the knee, forcing the creature to kneel on the ground. David followed with a spinning kick to the Shade's face, knocking it flat on its back, and was then executed by Otacon with a shot to the head. Link stabbed the second one with his Master Sword, putting an end to it quickly. David smacked the third one with the butt of his M4A1 and put it in a chokehold while it was groggy from the hit. David used the Shade as a shield while he moved forward towards the attacking group. Many of the Shades ceased fire, while some tried their luck at shooting David, missing completely. David unloaded the clip of his assault rifle into the crowd, racking up a large kill count. Zelda charged up a Light Arrow and shot it into the crowd. Being so powerful, the arrow penetrated through an entire row of enemies, killing all of them. There were very few Shades left, after a few minutes, there were only five left. The entire group attempted one final attack to end it all, but were surprised to see that they had all run out of ammo. The group went back to cover, trying to think of what they could do.  
"Damn it!' Samus said in frustration.  
"This looks like the end David." Otacon said as the five shades began moving towards their locations with fully loaded weapons.  
"Wait…aren't we missing something" David asked.  
Following David's question was an explosion of an M203 Grenade that killed the five Shades. The group looked behind them to see that it was the blonde man whom had killed the Shade that attacked Zelda yesterday.  
"Looks like you all managed." The man said.  
"Alright guy, cut the crap. Tell us who you are!' David said.  
"Name's Michael. Michael Edgarson." The man said.  
At that moment, David heard the click of a gun and looked immediately to his left and saw that a Shade was still alive and pointing a gun at Peach. Everyone except David was completely unaware.  
"NO!" David yelled.  
David ran to Peach and pushed her away from where she was standing, with him standing in the way of the incoming bullet.  
"David what are you…" Peach yelled before being interrupted by a horrifying event.  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHH!" David cried in tremendous pain and fell to the ground.  
The bullet grazed his right eye, destroying his sight in it completely. Michael immediately fired at the attacking Shade and killed it, but the damage was done.  
"DAVID!" his five friends screamed in horror, seeing their friend bleeding profusely from his right eye.  
Michael was furious with himself for David being shot. He began blaming himself in his head for not being more alert.

* * *

Samus kneeled down and held David's upper body in her arms. He was still bleeding from the eye that had been shot.  
"David, are you ok?!" Samus asked.  
She immediately felt stupid for asking such a stupid question. Of course he wasn't ok, he had just had his eye shot. But David knew the real meaning behind the question. She wanted to know if he was going to live.  
"I've been better, but I've also felt worse. I'll live. It's just an eye." David said trying to calm everyone down.  
"David, why did you let yourself get shot to save me?" Peach asked with tears in her eyes.  
"I…I made a promise to a friend." David answered and looked over to Otacon, who was also crying for his friend.  
"A friend that shouldn't have someone he loves to be taken from him again."  
Peach looked over to Otacon, and ran over to him and hugged him. David grinned at Otacon when he saw this.  
"David!" Link yelled, causing David to turn his head towards him.  
"I don't care what you say about yourself. I don't care about what you did in the past. You've proven that you're a hero. More of a hero than any of us." Link said  
David didn't say anything to try and change his mind.  
"David, you truly are a wonderful man. Not a beast, or a shadow. But a man." Zelda told him.

David finally turned to the man whom he did not know about. He saw the look of anger on his face.  
"What's got you so pissed off Michael."  
The look of anger turned into a look of sorrow.  
"Damn it Snake. I'm sorry! I…"  
"David."  
"What?"  
"It's David. I don't go by Snake anymore."  
"Ok, David I'm sorry. I should have been more careful, I should of checked the area. I could of saved you from taking a bullet!" Michael said with anger towards himself.  
"The M203 Grenade Launcher. You're a soldier from Earth aren't you."  
Michael was silent for a moment, but was impressed at the observation.  
"You know you're stuff. Yeah I was a soldier from Earth. A marine."  
"As a soldier, there is something that you should know."  
"What's that?" Michael asked.  
"You can't save everyone, everytime."  
Michael sighed when David told him this. He wished it wasn't true, but David was right.  
"You're right. But you're still alive. That means I can pay you back in some way. Whatever it is you need I'll do it." Michael assured David.  
"You know how to patch up this eye?" David asked.  
"Of course, let's get that taken care of."  
"Alright, but afterwards, you tell us everything. How you know us, how you knew this ambush was going to happen. All of it. I don't know whether I can trust you or not yet. Understand?" David demanded.  
"Absolutely. Now let's get to that eye."

* * *

After an hour, Michael had finished patching up the damaged eye. They all returned to the Smash Mansion. Many of the smashers were horrified at what happened to David, but when they heard what had happened, they were just thankful David and the others came back alive. David was in the bathroom of his room in the mansion. He put an eye patch given to him by Michael over his right eye. He looked in the mirror, and couldn't help but to think of his father. Samus knocked on his door that was now fixed and he opened it to let her in.  
"Hey David." She said still looking affected by what had taken place.  
"Hi. Come on in." David said.  
"Just wanted to check in on you." Samus said.  
"Oh thanks. I'm doing much better." He told her.  
He went back to the mirror of his bathroom. He had no shirt on, and looked at his face and body. He thought about how hideous it must look to people.  
"A body full of war scars, a face full of wrinkles, a burnt face, and to top it all off, a damaged eye covered by an eye patch. Man I must be a handsome devil" David said with much sarcasm.  
"What do you think Samus?"  
To his surprise, Samus answered David with a rather long kiss on his lips. His eye was wide open in shock the first few seconds, but he accepted it shortly afterwards. Samus pulled away from David with tears in her eyes.  
"Christ David! You scared me to death today! Please don't get yourself killed David! I don't want to watch you die! Promise me!" Samus demanded.  
David knew he couldn't guarantee it wouldn't happen, but for Samus' sake, he did what she asked.  
"Ok I promise. What's the reason for the kiss?"  
"You're an idiot sometimes. I love you!"  
"What?!"  
"Do I really have to repeat myself? I love you David! Why is that hard for you to believe." She said louder.  
"How can anyone love me when I look like this?"  
"Love isn't about physical appearance David. It's the fact that I'm happy to be around you and that you're in my life and the person you are that I love you. Understand?"  
"Yeah, I do. I'm about to say something I've never said in my entire life to anyone, so here it goes."  
David cleared his throat.  
"I love you too Samus."  
Samus smiled at David and pulled him into another kiss, which he returned this time. David had just done something that was completely against his modified genetics. He loved someone. He had once again gone against the will of the Patriots.  
"I guess I'm not a shadow…" David told Samus after they pulled from the kiss.  
They both smiled and embraced each other.

* * *

**End of Act 1...**

* * *

**So I decided that I'm splitting the story into "Acts". The theme or main purpose behind these past ten chapters was to get David settled into the Smash Universe as well as struggling with the self doubt, the question on how human he really is, and what his purpose in life is. I think that David has finally overcome these obstacles. So now it is time to move on to a new theme. And with a new theme, there are more problems and obstacles. So Chapter 11 will be the beginning of Act II. The act will focus on, oh I don't know, some supernatural threat to the universe that attacked David and his friends. Something like that.**


	11. Michael Edgarson

******This is the beginning of the Second Act of this Story. In this chapter, we learn about Michael Edgarson. Most of this chapter is a conversation between Mike and David. The text in italics is Mike talking, while the bold text is David talking. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for reading.  
**

* * *

**Act**** II: Liquid Shade  
**

* * *

David and Samus woke up the next morning. David had Samus wrapped around his arm while she rested against his chest. They smiled at each other and got out of the bed.  
"So what's the plan for today David?" Samus asked.  
"Breakfast, then we're going to learn about that Michael guy." David replied.  
"What were you thinking for breakfast?" Samus asked David.  
"The cafeteria. Everyone else is going to be there. We have some things to discuss."

David and Samus met Otacon, Peach, Link, and Zelda in the cafeteria. Everyone seemed to have recovered from yesterday's events.  
"Good morning David. How are you feeling?" Peach asked sweetly.  
"I've been better. What about you guys? Are you guys ok? Nobody is hurt I hope." David asked.  
"We're all fine David. We're more concerned about you. We haven't seen you since Michael bandaged your eye." Zelda said with concern.  
"Don't worry, I just can't see with one eye. It's not that big of a deal."  
"So your eye is never going to recover?" Link asked  
"No it won't."  
"Well that definitely is a big deal David!" Peach yelled. Peach felt guilty for David being in the condition he was in.  
"No it's not. My father lost his eye and yet he was able to accomplish so much that he was named the greatest soldier in history." David proclaimed.  
Everyone was silent for a moment. The only person not concerned about David's eye was Otacon, David's best friend. He knew that he absolutely hated being looked upon as handicapped.  
"Everyone, please don't worry. Ok sure, David lost an eye. Does that make him weak? Absolutely not. One eyed or not, he's still the same David in my eyes. And all you're letting him down by looking at him like he is handicapped. Just look at him the same way you did before he lost an eye. I'm sure that's what he wants." Otacon said to his friends.  
David smiled at his friend. It was like he had taken the words right out of David's mouth.  
"Thanks Otacon." David said smiling at his best friend.  
"All right, let's move on to the important matter here. This Michael guy. We've never seen him before and then out of nowhere to help us with a "surprise" attack from those Shades." Samus said.  
"Definitely didn't look like a surprise from his view. He seemed to have known that the attack was going to happen. And it looked like he knew we would be there. He hid weapons for the people who didn't have weapons to retrieve. But they weren't just any weapons, they were weapons that we favored. For the people who had weapons, he knew what weapons they had, and told them what to do with them. It looks to me that this guy has been spying on the Shades and us. This guy said he was a Marine, but no Marine is that good at gathering intelligence on targets." David replied. David obviously had a much better eye for spotting things like this.  
"We don't know anything about all of this. The best thing to do is to go to Michael and have him tell us everything. He told us yesterday that he would. I'm finished eating, so why don't we go ahead?" Link said.  
Everyone agreed, and got out of their chairs and began to make their way to the living room.

Everyone took a seat down at the living room, waiting for the blonde man named Michael.  
"Where is he David?" Samus asked.  
"He said he would be here in a few minutes." David answered her.  
Soon enough, Michael entered the room and took a seat set for him in the middle of the living room.  
"I'm sure none of you want to make small talk and neither do I so I'm just going to get this over with. What do you want to know?" The blonde man said.  
"Well you did say everything, but everything is a pretty broad term isn't it. I like specifics. I want to know you're history. I want to know what these Shades are. Why are you fighting them? How do you know so much about us?"  
"That's fair enough. I'll go ahead and begin with who I am…"

* * *

_I am Michael James Edgarson. I was born on October 10, 1984. So there's one thing you know about me, I'm 30 years old. I'm not going to bore you with my childhood, you only want to know about my military background I'm assuming. So when I turned 21, I enlisted into the USMC (United States Marine Corps). It was there that I learned about the handling of weaponry. I fought as a part of the War on Terror in 2005…_

**_2005? That's the year of the Shadow Moses Incident. I didn't hear about this whole War on Terror. When did it start?_ **

_Well on September 11 2001, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. It was later found out to be a terrorist attack, where terrorist hijacked airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center._

_It's fine…anyway President George W. Bush issued a statement later that day…_

_**Again, what are you talking about? George Sears or AKA Solidus Snake was the president of the United States in 2001.**_

_Who the hell is George Sears… Oh never mind that! Stay with me when this story is over. Ok so President Bush issued the War on Terror and I fought in it. It felt kind of pointless as the war went on. Felt like there wasn't really a good reason for us to fight them. So I set up camp with my platoon and we all rested by the fire. That's when I first came across the Shades. I was horrified. My friends were being ripped to pieces by these things. I tried fighting one up close, and it just smacked me aside and knocked me unconscious into a bush. I woke up and still hid in the bushes and looked out to see if anything was happening. And then I saw my entire platoon turned into Shades, and they were walking away with the Shades that had just attacked us with an evil smile. I was the only one of my platoon to survive the attack. I tried to explain to my Commanding Officer the situation, but they didn't believe anything that I said and just thought that I was suffering from the trauma of watching my friends being killed. They just marked the incident as a Terrorist ambush and that they took away or burned the corpses. _

_**You've got PTSD to?**_

_Don't all soldiers? I still suffer with it to this day. I didn't actually get the symptoms until I was sent home, and I came home to find my neighborhood destroyed. My wife, my friends, all dead. The Shades were written all over it. I swore vengeance against the Shades, promised myself that I would end them. I tried to fight them by myself , worst idea I've ever made. As they had me pinned on to the ground, I met the Brother of Darkness. He was the leader of the group that we fought against yesterday._

…_**Liquid… **_

_The Brother of Darkness was standing over me, with a pistol in his hand, and pressed the barrel against me head. It definitely looked like it was over for me. To my luck, three people came to rescue me. These weren't ordinary people however. The weapons and equipment they had was astounding. Their arrival scared off the Shades, and The Brother of Darkness along with them. They revealed themselves to me as The X Universe Organization (Cross Universe Organization). They took me and nursed me back to health. When I woke up, they explained to me what the purpose of their organization was. They traveled across Universes, in pursuit of the Shades, so they could eliminate them. Basically, they travel to different Universes to protect them. _

_**Protect them from what?**_

_From being taken over. The goal of the Shades is Universal domination. The Brother of Darkness' goal is to take control of every universe in existence. For some reason the X Universe Organization saw some sort of potential in me, so they recruited me into the organization. Now it is my duty to stop these things. _

_**Why are you here alone? Where is the rest of the Organization?**_

…

_**Michael?**_

…

_**Michael!?**_

_Their dead! I'm the only one left…_

_It was an operation that went wrong in every way. We thought we were in perfect position to ambush Shades. The truth was that we were in the perfect position to be ambushed. Once again…I had to be the survivor. The only survivor.. _

…_The last order they gave me was to find the Brother of Light. I wish they would have given me more info on who this guy is._

_**Did you come over here to try and find him? Is that the reason why you spied on all of us? **_

_Yes and no. The main reason I'm here is because this is the next universe that the Shades plan to take over. I think you should know that the Shades will not leave a universe until they have taken control of it or they have been destroyed. The latter has never happened. They're going to have to go through a lot of trouble to take over this universe though. The Smashers are much more powerful than the Shades. They can't take control of this universe until all the Smashers have been neutralized. So I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen. But yes, I have been spying on each of you, for many reasons. The reason I looked into your preference of weapons was so that I could help you from the shadows with less difficulty. However I won't need to do that anymore now that I'll be fighting side by side with you guys. _

_**Let this be known Mike. We will allow you to help us fight against the Shades. However, we still don't trust you. **_

_Fair enough. So anyway, the second reason I've been spying on everyone is also an attempt to find the brother of light. Is there anything else that I haven't talked about yet?_

_**Yeah. We still don't know what these Shades are.**_

_Oh right, that's an important subject. The best word to describe the Shades would be tormented souls. You could call them demons as well. They're creatures that represent every negative emotion a human being can feel. Creatures of hatred, anger, sorrow, pain, and jealousy. They are created when a Shade kills a human, and The Brother of Darkness convinces the dead person to sell their soul to him. In exchange for their loyalty to him, he promises to resurrect them and give them salvation. They have the ability to possess humans and creatures. However, they cannot hide their negative emotions while being possessed. So if you see someone here acting unusual, like being angry or having abnormal mood swings, be suspicious. I want to put an end to them. I have to! I have to avenge the people that the Shades have taken from me!_

_**I agree with you that these things need to be stopped. But revenge shouldn't be your reasoning or motivation for doing this! They took people that were close to you from your life, I'm sorry about that. But if you think that killing the Shades will absolve you of your grief and regrets, you're in for a surprise. We all want to kill the Shades for the good of the universe, not because of a personal vendetta! I think that you should be doing it for the same reason.**_

…_._

_**Michael!**_

_I'm sorry…you're right David. But even if I wanted to kill the Brother of Darkness, I can't. Only the Brother of Light is capable of killing him. _

_**This sounds like some sort of Ancient Prophecy…What exactly do you know about this Brother of Light?**_

_Well, he is the brother of The Brother of Darkness. _

_**Is he a different type of creature that is the opposite of the Shades?**_

_Actually no. He's just a normal man. A man who defeated The Brother of Darkness when he was a human. The man suffers from constraints of his genetics. He is suffering from accelerated aging, and appears to be in the body of an old man. He's dying right now, and he doesn't have much time left. I need to find him before he dies. And once I find him, I'm supposed to give him something important. Do you guys know anyone who fits the description?_

…

_David? What's the matter? _

…

_David?_

_**Shit…**_

_What is it David?_

_**I think you found your guy…**_


	12. Needle Phobia

"I think you found your guy…" David said to Michael

"What do you mean? I have not found the Brother of Light yet." Mike said confused.

"Well you just did."

"Ok. If I have found the Brother of Light, where is he?"

"…You're looking at him…" David answered.

A look of complete shock appeared on Michael's face. Everyone in the room was silent. All of David's friends had known that David was the Brother of Light after Michael gave the description of the title, just like David himself did.

"I'm guessing you would like me to give some evidence to support my claim?" David asked breaking the silence in the room.

"Uh…yeah, that would be appreciated." Michael said sarcastically.

"The person you know by the name The Brother of Darkness, me and my friends here know him as Liquid." David answered.

"Liquid?"

"Liquid Snake to be exact. He and David are twins. " Otacon said entering the conversation.

"Ok, I get it, Liquid Snake and Solid Snake, you have the same codename. That doesn't make you related." Michael responded.

"I know that, but what I'm about to tell you will explain."

"Ok, go ahead."

"David's father was known Big Boss, who was considered around the world to be the greatest soldier in history."

"Huh. If he was that famous I would have heard of him. Even though you guys are from Earth, you aren't from my dimension from the looks of it." Michael said

"Dimension? What do you mean by that? There's only one Earth. How is it that we both come from Earth yet our perception of its history is different?" David asked.

"Yes, it is true that there is only one Earth. However, there is a countless amount of dimensions, and several of those dimensions share similar qualities, such as planets. But the history of a dimension's Earth can be drastically different from the Earth of another dimension. That's why we had different presidents during the same time period. That's why you don't know about the war on terror. " Michael explained.

"So events like World War II, The Cold War, The Manhattan Project, The Hiroshima Bombing, and Watergate. Those never happened?" David asked.

"Actually, all of those events did happen. Which also goes to show that even different dimensions can have the same events occur, although the way those events play out could be different." Michael explained.

Michael then remembered the conversation he was having with Otacon before talking with David. He had completely forgotten about it.

"I'm sorry Otacon, I got off track. Would you mind continuing?"

"Not at all. So in the 1970s, Big Boss had established himself as the greatest soldier on the planet. An organization called the Patriots wanted to create clones of Big Boss for their own purposes. The result was the Les Enfants Terribles project." Otacon said continuing his explanation.

"The Terrible Twins?" Michael asked.

"Right. In this project, they took Big Boss while he was in a coma and experimented on him. They couldn't create children of Big Boss through natural reproductive means, due to Big Boss being sterile. So they took his DNA and implanted it to a health egg, which was then placed into a surrogate mother. They modified the DNA to shorten the life span of the children and take away their ability to reproduce. From there, the sons of Big Boss, Liquid and Solid, were born."

Michael was taken aback from what he was being told. In his dimension, experiments like that weren't even possible.

"I didn't figure out Liquid was my brother, or even knew he existed until 2005. The Shadow Moses Incident. There I defeated him and stopped his plan. He died there from a virus that was designed to kill certain people based on genetic coding. And I was the carrier. So therefore, I killed Liquid in his human form. Something your prophecy talks about." David explained.

Realization then struck Michael, leaving him with a look of awe and disbelief.

"So it's…it's true. You are the…Brother of Light." Michael said nervously.

"Uh…yeah. I guess I am." David replied, not entirely excited about his new title.

"There's uh… there's something I have to give you." Michael said.

"Ok, what is it?" David asked.

Michael slowly reached into his bag and pulled out a rectangular box. He opened the box and pulled a syringe. The sight of the syringe made David shiver. If there was any object that David hated more in the entire universe, it was needles. Not that he was afraid of shots, but because of what was in the shot. The shot Naomi gave him turned out to be FOXDIE, the virus that kills people with a specific genetic code, which Naomi had also programmed to kill him too at some point. Then on his final mission, Drebin, a man who would remove the ID locks off SOP guns for him, injected him with a new strain of FOXDIE to kill the remaining founding members of the Patriots. They were his mother EVA, Ocelot, and his father Big Boss. Needless to say, David wasn't going to let another needle inject into him without his consent.

"Ok…Mike…what is in the syringe?' David asked with tension building in him.

"I…I don't know exactly." Michael answered him.

"So you're planning to inject me with a syringe that contains chemicals that you do not know about?"

"Well, yes. That was what I was told to do by the X Universe Federation before they died."

"Well sorry, it's not happening."

"What?! Why?"

"I don't know what the hell it will do to me! It might give me some sort of new virus, or kill me, or turn me into a weapon of mass destruction!"

"David, you're not thinking rationally. Why would the Federation want to do something to harm you, when you are the only person capable of defeating our enemy?"

"…"

David was pondering on what Michael had said. David couldn't help but agree with what Michael had said. Michael and the people he worked with, didn't seem like the type of people who have big conspiracy plans. But he still wanted to at least know the reason why the Federation told Michael to give him the shot.

"Ok, I'll take the shot but only if you can answer this question." David said.

"Alright, what is it? I'll tell you." Michael assured David.

"Why did the Federation want you to give me this shot? What did they tell you?" David asked.

"Well, I have an answer, but it's probably not one you're looking for. The commander didn't give me an exact reason. All he said was; Give this to him, so that once the shadow falls, a man will arise."

David didn't expect this answer, and like Michael assumed, it wasn't the one that he wanted. But it was better than nothing, and he had to stay true to his word.

"Ok…give me the syringe." David said reluctantly.

Michael obeyed David's request and handed him the syringe. David took the cap off and exposed the needle. As much as he didn't want to, he was going to take that shot. He pushed his fear aside and injected the syringe into his neck. David's friends looked as he did this, with Samus looking especially worried.

David expected some symptoms to occur immediately. Something like a headache or spasms. But he received no sort of bad effects from the syringe. But he still wasn't convinced that it didn't do anything to him.

"Samus! Otacon! I need to get a Vitals exam now!"

2 Hours later, Otacon and Samus finished up David's vital exam that he more demanded rather than requested. Neither of them expected the results to be what they were.

"My god! This…this is unbelievable!" Otacon yelled.

"What is it Hal? Is there something wrong?" Samus asked with much concern.

"Far from it! This is a miracle!"

"What is it Hal?!" Samus said starting to get frustrated.

"Let's go to David, I'll explain there.

Otacon and Samus left Otacon's office and headed to David's room. They arrived at his door and knocked on it. David didn't like people entering his room without knocking.

"Come on in." David said.

Samus and Otacon opened the door and saw David sitting in a chair looking rather impatient.

"So Otacon, what are the results? Is there a new substance in my body now?" David asked

"Actually David, there's a substance that is gone from your body. Well not a substance, but a virus. A virus we both know as FOXDIE." Otacon said with a happiness.

Samus and David had a look of shock and disbelief on their face.

"Completely gone?" David asked

"Completely gone!"

"That can't be possible. Viruses don't just…disappear."

"I couldn't believe it either, but look at these photos." Otacon said and pulled out photos from the tests.

David and Samus looked at the photos and couldn't believe what they saw. It looked like the photo that Naomi showed him at South America, but this time the FOXDIE virus was nowhere in sight.

"I can't believe it!" David said with excitement.

"Oh my god David this is great!" Samus said and then embraced David.

David was very happy for a moment but then realized something. Something that took away the joy of the moment.

"David? What's wrong?" Samus said noticing the sad look on David's face.

"Well, even with FOXDIE gone, it still doesn't change that I don't have much time left. I won't die from FOXDIE, but my body won't hold out for long in this condition."

Samus and Otacon both had a grim look on their face at the reality.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that David." A voice said outside of the room.

The voice belonged to none other than Michael who walked into the room.

"What do you mean?" David asked Michael, very confused at his statement.

"One thing I know about the shot is that its effects take place through a gradual process. I suggest you take another vitals test tomorrow. See if there's anything different." Michael said.

"Alright, will do" Otacon said.

Michael left the room. David was still curious as to what this "gradual process" was. David was getting a headache from all that had taking place. So many questions were racing through his head, all going unanswered.

"I need some fresh air." David said getting up from his chair.

"Come on David, let's go to the park." Samus said and held his hand.

"I'd like that." David told her and kissed her on the cheek, causing her to blush.

"_Hopefully I can get all of this off my mind." _David thought to himself.


	13. So Much to Handle

Otacon was in his lab looking over the results from David's vitals exam. He was still in disbelief at the results.

"_One thing I know about the shot is that its effects take place through a gradual process. I suggest you take another vitals test tomorrow. See if there's anything different."_

These words spoken by Michael had been ringing in his head.

"_What are the effects going to be?"_ Otacon thought to himself.

He decided that it would do no good pondering about it. He would have to do what Michael said and take another test tomorrow. He began getting the lab equipment ready for tomorrow.

"Hello Hal." A sweet feminine voice spoke

Otacon turned to the door and saw that it was his girlfriend Peach.

"Oh, uh, hello Peach. How are you doing?" Otacon asked

"I'm doing better. Still a little shaken up from the a few days ago…" The princess responded.

"You and I both." Otacon responded.

"So, how did David's results come out?"

"Good actually. The shot that Michael gave him eliminated the FOXDIE in his body." Otacon said though not as enthusiastic as when he first discovered it.

"Really? Well that's great!" Peach said.

"Yeah…it is…." Otacon said with a distraught look on his face.

Peach noticed the look on her boyfriend's face. She knew exactly what it meant.

"He…still doesn't have much time does he?" Peach said with her eyes beginning to water.

Otacon was silent for a minute, before finally managing to answer her question.

"I…I don't know actually."

"What do you mean?"

"Well Michael said that the shot's effects will take place as time goes by."

"Do you think it might be some sort of cure? Something that could make David's body a 42 year olds body and not a 70 year olds?" Peach asked.

"I would normally say that would be impossible, but since this shot got rid of FOXDIE, who knows what it could do. My only concern is whether the effects will be good or not."

Peach walked up to Otacon and embraced him.

"Well we'll just have to wait and see Hal. And I'll be by your side through all of it." She said sweetly.

"I know you will."

After a minute of the embrace, Otacon and Peach looked at each other.

"I…I love you Peach." Otacon said. This marked the first time he told this to a woman.

Peach responded with a tight embrace and a kiss on his lips.

"I love you too…Hal."

* * *

Michael was standing on the top of a tall hill near the Mansion. He was looking through his binoculars to scout outside the Smash Mansion property to make sure there were no invading Shades. He didn't want anyone to be caught off guard again. He hadn't been with the Smashers for too long, and most of them either didn't know him that well or didn't trust him. Yet still, he felt like he had an obligation to protect them with his life. He had been willing to protect people before with his life, but only because it was a part of his mission. It was different this time. He felt like he wasn't protecting them for a mission, but for himself. It was then that someone started a conversation with Michael, something he hadn't seen any of the smashers attempt to do.

"You've-a been up-a here for quite a long time Mister." A voice with an Italian accent said.

Michael looked behind him and saw that it Luigi, and he had traveled up the tall hill to speak with him. He couldn't imagine why.

"Hello Luigi. Yeah, I'm just making sure the Shades aren't going to ambush us. What are you doing up here exactly? It's a pretty long walk up here so I guess it must be something important." Michael responded.

"No, nothing important. I just wanted to talk with you Mike. You know, get to know each other."

Michael was shocked at what he heard. He wanted to have a casual conversation.

"Oh, uh…really? I'm a little surprised. I thought that everyone who wasn't involved in this whole Shade situation didn't want to have anything to do with me."

"You got it all wrong Mike. None of the other smashers hate you."

"They don't trust me, that's what it is right."

Luigi was silent. Michael had it figured out.

"Yeah, that would be the reason…I'm sorry I just can't convince them."

"Convince them? Convince them to do what?" Michael asked.

"To trust you." Luigi answered.

Michael's eyes widened at the answer.

"You…trust me?" Michael asked confused.

"Of course I do." Luigi answered without hesitation.

"But…why? I'm a specialist in espionage. I hide up in the hills and spy on people through my binoculars, gather information on them, and use it for various reasons, some good, some bad. People like me are hard to trust, sometimes they never are."

"Well, you saved David, Samus, Otacon, Peach, Link, and Zelda. That's good enough for me."

A grim look grew on Michael's face.

"What's wrong?" Luigi asked.

"I didn't save them…because of my incompetence, David can only see through one eye."

"I don't think you understand. Sure David got hurt, but they're all still alive. They wouldn't be alive if you hadn't prepared them for the attack. David's not mad at you for him getting shot in the eye. You're the one that's beating yourself up over it."

Michael didn't reply to what Luigi said. Mainly because he realized that he was right. No one had the courage to tell him this truth. Michael wondered why.

"I'll leave you here to think if that's what you want." Luigi said to the silent blonde man.

As Luigi began to walk off, Michael suddenly stopped him.

"Luigi…wait!" Michael cried out.

Luigi obeyed Michael's request questionably.

"What is it?" Luigi asked.

"…Thanks. For… talking to me." Michael answered him.

Luigi smiled, feeling happy that he helped someone.

"Hey, that's what friends are for." Luigi said before leaving.

"Friends…that…that sounds nice." Michael thought to himself.

* * *

David and Samus were sitting on a bench in the park. They took a look at the beautiful environment around them. The sun was shining, the weather was nice, seemed like it couldn't have been a more beautiful day. David just couldn't seem to enjoy the environment like he wanted to.

"What seems to be bothering you David?" Samus asked very concerned.

David smiled. He knew Samus cared for him. It felt good to have someone like her in his life to talk to about his problems and she would listen even if she couldn't help the situation in any way.

"Well Samus, I don't know. Everything that's been happening lately just doesn't seem real. Liquid's back, FOXDIE is gone from my body, I'm apparently the chosen one of some prophecy. It's all a lot to handle." David answered Samus.

"I understand what you're saying David. It is a lot to handle I know. But all we can do is wait and see how everything plays out. I wish there was more I could do to help." Samus said.

Samus looked upset after she said this. The last thing she said was very much true. David had helped her and others so much in their times of need, and here she was unable to return the favor. In her mind at least.

"Listen. You're helping me as best as you can just by listening to what I have to say. That's good enough for me." David told Samus trying to make her feel better. Sure enough it did.

"Thank you David. I'm glad to know that I'm helping you some way." She said while giving him a hug.

David looked out into the field and saw a familiar young blonde boy sitting on the grass. It was Lucas. He was watching as all the other children were playing with their parents, and he looked rather distraught. David knew why. Lucas' parents weren't with him anymore.

"Samus? Who takes care of Lucas now that his parents are gone?" David asked Samus.

"Well, he is an orphan and is taken care of financially by the Smash Bros. Organization. That being said, he isn't raised by any type of foster parents of any kind. Poor kid…"

David noticed a Frisbee to the left of him, laying on the bench. He picked it up and began walking to Lucas.

"Samus. Follow me." David requested.

Samus saw the Frisbee in David's hand and a smile grew on her face. She followed David and they stopped in front of Lucas.

"Lucas." Said David

"Oh, hey you guys. What's going on?" Lucas asked nervously

"You want to play some Frisbee with us?" David asked.

Lucas looked at the two adults that were looking at him with a smile. Soon enough, a smile grew on his face.

"Sure! Sounds like a lot of fun!" Lucas said with excitement.

David, Samus, and Lucas played with the frisbee for several hours until it got dark outside. After they were finished, they all laughed and gathered in a group hug.

"That was a lot of fun!" Lucas yelled.

"Haha, it sure was buddy!" David said to the young boy.

"Thank you guys so much for playing with me. I really needed to be cheered up."

"We were more than happy to Lucas." Samus said.

A thought came up in David's head as the three of them were in a group hug. He thought of the image to himself, and he thought they looked like something he never had, a happy family. As much as he wanted to have one for himself, he remembered that he was set to die very soon. David just hoped at that moment that out of all these events that happened all of a sudden, that something good would come out of it.

* * *

It was 12:30 AM, everyone was sleeping in the mansion. Michael had a tent set up outside of the mansion, but he wasn't sleeping, and he wasn't scouting. He was suffering from nightmares, very violent nightmares. Reliving of horrific events of the past. His family, friends, being slaughtered by Shades. He was tossing, turning, and screaming. He felt like he wouldn't wake up from this nightmare, but then a feminine voice cried out to him, and pulled him from the nightmare.

"Michael! Michael! Wake up!"

Michael's eyes opened up quickly. He realized that he had tears coming out of them. He then looked over to the woman to the right of him.

"Who...who are you?"


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry for not uploading a new chapter in such a long time. I've had some family problems and school's been a real pain. But I finally found the time to get a chapter written. I hope you enjoy it.**

"Who are you" Michael asked the woman who woke him up. He could not see what she looked like due to his vision being blurred by his tears.

"My name is Rosalina"

"Rosalina?"

Michael wiped the tears from his eyes to clear his vision. His vision cleared and gazed upon a beautiful blonde woman wearing a blue dress. For some reason, he felt nervous in the presence of this woman.

"How come I've never heard about you before? Are you even a smasher?" Michael asked

"No I am not actually. I'm more of an overseer. I watch over the smashers, make sure everyone is all right." Rosalina said in response.

"What are you doing here? Why did you wake me up?" Michael asked even though he knew the reason.

"I heard you screaming and crying. You sounded like you were in trouble so I ran over here. But I saw you were having a horrific dream, and I couldn't allow you to go through that."

"Oh, I'm sorry I woke you up. I didn't mean to." Michael apologized.

"Well I wasn't asleep." Rosalina said

"You weren't? Where were you then?"

"On that short hill nearby. So what was your nightmare about? Talking about it will make you feel better." Rosalina asked.

"No. I'm fine. There's no need to talk about it. It was just a bad dream. Everybody has one every now and then." Michael said rather coldly.

"I can tell that you're not fine Michael. I really think that you should talk to me about it. I want to help you."

"I don't need any help! I'm fine. How the hell are you supposed to know how I'm feeling?" Michael said with anger.

"Well for one, you became really defensive just now." Rosalina pointed out

Michael felt embarrassed that she pointed that out to him. Michael could see she was very smart.

"Michael, people have nightmares, there's no doubt about that. But not many people have nightmares as frequently as you do."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know you have PTSD Michael. I know what you dream about. I know that those memories tear you apart inside, and I know that you relive those terrible memories in your dreams every night. I sense several emotions from you. Feelings of anger, sorrow, suffering, guilt, revenge."

Michael was rendered speechless. Everything she said was right. She read him like an open book, and he couldn't understand how. He had always kept his emotions to himself.

"Now can you look at me in the eyes and tell me that I'm wrong? If you can, then I'll leave you alone about this."

Michael gazed at Rosalina's eyes. She had beautiful eyes. Beautiful, compassionate eyes.

"You're…you're….."

Michael tried to lie to her right to her face. Tell her that what she said wasn't true, and she would leave him alone. But for reasons he didn't know why, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He could say the two simple words "You're wrong". Michael's eyes began to water with tears, and he soon began sobbing.

"Michael?" Rosalina asked very concerned.

It was then that Michael fell to his knees and his sobbing turned into bursting with tears and crying out.

"You're right! You're right! Everything you said, it's all true!" Michael said while crying his eyes out.

Rosalina was shocked to see the man who was once a soldier, someone who didn't let his emotions show, just crack and burst into tears. She couldn't imagine what type of hell he has been through. She felt so sorry for him, and would do anything she could to help him.

"Michael…" Rosalina said with pity in her voice.

She knelt down to Michael's level and embraced him, holding his hand to try to comfort him. She succeeded, and Michael slowly began to stop crying, and turned the crying into sobbing.

"I…I lost everyone Rosalina…everyone I cared about. They were all killed by Shades."

"So that's what you have nightmares about. Seeing people that you care about dying again."

"Yeah, every night. It's a different person each night. Sometimes it's my wife. Sometimes it's my son. And sometimes it's my friends. Not to mention seeing my squad members get blown to pieces during the war."

"So this is why you desire to kill the Shades so much. You want to avenge your loved ones, and get revenge for yourself?" Rosalina asked

"Yes. I have to avenge all the people that the Shades took away from me."

"What about after all the Shades have been killed. What will you do?"

"What will I do? Well, I'll….uh…"

Michael couldn't answer the question. He had only focused on one goal, killing the Shades. He didn't make a plan for the future in the case that the Shades were destroyed.

"Michael, killing the Shades will not bring your loved ones back. You know that right?"

Michael began to cry again. After a long silence, he pulled himself together and began to speak.

"Yes you're right. I know that it's common sense. But when you're so focused on revenge, you don't take the time to realize these things. I don't think clearly too much."

"It's the fact that you're fighting for revenge that is affecting your thinking, as well as your combat abilities. Do you know what David and the others are fighting for?"

"No. I never thought about it."

"David and the others are fighting the Shades for the protection of others, not for themselves. You are fighting for revenge, a pointless and selfish cause."

Normally Michael would get furious if anyone had told him that. But Rosalina comforted him and made him realize the truth. The only person he knew that could do that was his wife. This woman definitely reminded him of his wife.

"You're right. I am being selfish. I am going to start fighting for others. That's what my loved ones would of wanted."

"That's great Michael" Rosalina said with a smile.

"Thank you…Rosalina." Michael said in a calm, soothing voice.

"I'm glad I could help you Michael." Rosalina said and extended her hand to Michael.

Instead of accepting the handshake, Michael threw his arms around Rosalina and brought her into a warm embrace. Rosalina was surprised by the hug but accepted it without hesitation.

"Thank you so much!" Michael said while he began crying.

"Everything is going to be all right Michael." Rosalina whispered to Michael and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Michael was very shocked at the kiss and his face began to turn red.

"Good night Michael."

"Yeah…good night…Rosalina."

Michael went back to bed and fell asleep without any trouble. He couldn't recall the last time he had slept like that.

* * *

The next day, Otacon and Samus were in Otacon's lab preparing for David's next exam.

"All right. Samus, could you go and get David for me?" Otacon asked.

"Sure."

After Samus left the room Otacon went over to his computer terminal.

"I hope nothing screws up" He thought to himself.

Samus walked in the room with David soon after.

"All right, let's get this over with." David said in a disgruntled voice.


	15. Shades of War

**This story is approaching the climax. There will be one more chapter before the grand finale chapter 17. I promise I won't disappoint.  
WARNING: There is a child character death in this scene. Just letting you know. **

* * *

Hal and Samus began their testing on David's body. A machine scanned his body while he was laying down on a bed. After 20 minutes, the scanning was finished.

"Alright David, you can get up now." Samus told David

David got up from the bed and stood up. He went over to Hal who was on his computer to see the results.

"Alright David. It will take a few minutes for the results to show up." Hal told David

"That's fine. But can I ask what exactly are you looking for in this scan?" David asked.

"We're looking to see how your physical condition is. Last time we looked for the health of your organs, which for some reason looked healthy. Very healthy…" Samus said still very shocked at the results of the first test.

"Ok the results are about to show up." Hal said.

"Otacon, we both know that I'm expected to die in a few months. Why do we need to do this test? I'm sure it's not going to be a surprise that my body is not in good condition."

At that moment, Hal and Samus looked at the results and gasped and continued to look at the screen with their jaws dropped.

"It's bad isn't it? It's no surprise. Why are you guys so shocked?" David said with the assumption that the results were not a pretty sight.

"No David. We're shocked because of this!" Samus said with excitement and turned the screen towards David for him to see.

"Holy shit…" David muttered in shock.

He looked at the results, and showed his body to be one of a health man in his 30's.

"David, the last time your body was in a condition as good as this was 2005." Hal informed David

"Shadow Moses…Otacon how is this possible?"

As soon as David finished speaking, the three heard an explosion outside of Smash Mansion.

"OK NEVERMIND THAT! LET'S GET OUTSIDE!" David yelled

As they were running to the door, David grabbed his M4A1 and attached an M203 Grenade Launcher, and Samus got in her power suit. Needless to say, they were ready for combat.

* * *

David and Samus ran outside and were joined by other Smashers. Link, Ganondorf, Zelda, Mario, Bowser, Captain Falcon, Fox, Falco, Wolf, and Sonic all gathered together, ready to fight the threat that awaited them.

"We're all with you David." Link said

The other Smashers nodded in agreement.

"Ok, everybody be careful."

They walked to the town square and saw what the threat was. It was a group of Shades, one much larger than the one they faced last time. In the front of them was Liquid, who had a pistol in his hand, pointing it at Ness who was laying on the ground. In the other hand he was holding Lucas by his hair.

"That bastard! He wouldn't dare…" Link spoke but was interrupted by a gunshot.

He did dare. Liquid pulled the trigger, and shot Ness in the head, killing him.

"NO!" Samus screamed.

David was infused with anger. Finally, he snapped.

"LIQUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!" David screamed and his voice rang for miles.

David began charging towards Liquid at incredible speed. Liquid saw an enraged David charging at him. He put his pistol right up to Lucas' head.

"Stop right there Snake! You come any closer and I'll shoot the boy!" Liquid yelled

David obeyed Liquid's order, not wanting to see Lucas' brains blown out.

"Liquid! You sick son of a bitch! Stop this now! Kill me instead! That's what you want!" David pleaded

"Snake you're an idiot. Do you not remember a damn thing I told you on our last encounter? I told you, I don't want to kill you. Well actually, I would kill you without hesitation." Liquid said and began laughing

"But that's not my mission Snake. My mission is to kill all of these Smashers. You're not a Smasher anymore. You're not allowed to compete in fights. They are however, so I'm going to kill them. One by one!" Liquid said and fired his pistol at Samus.

Liquid unfortunately didn't know the strength of Samus' power armor. The bullet hit the chest of Samus's power suit, but shattered into pieces upon impact.

"You thought you could penetrate my armor with that little toy of a weapon?" Samus asked with a chuckle.

"If you thought that was funny, Then let me show you something hilarious." Liquid said and pointed the pistol at Lucas' head.

"NO!" David and Samus screamed.

Just as Liquid was about to pull the trigger, Michael appeared and slapped the gun out of Liquids hand and kicked him in the face.

"David! You and Samus get Lucas somewhere safe! Me and the other Smashers will fight them until then!" Michael yelled

David and Samus ran to Lucas and David scooped him up in his arms. They began running to the mansion. Liquid got back up and kicked Michael square in the gut and delivered an uppercut straight to his chin, knocking Michael to the ground.

"Attack" Link yelled.

Liquid turned and to his surprise he was face to face with Bowser, the juggernaut Koopa King, who delivered a ferocious punch to Liquid, sending him flying into a wall. Bowser picked up Michael and got him back on his feet.

"Thanks." Michael said gratefully. Bowser responded with a nod.

"Weapons free everybody! Let's take these bastards down!" Fox yelled and all the Smashers gathered together, ready for battle.

* * *

David and Samus were in the mansion were in the mansion and laid Lucas down on a bed.

"Lucas, are you okay?!" David said deeply concerned.

"Y-Yeah, but Ness…" Lucas said and began crying over his dead friend

"I know buddy…I know. I'm sorry. I wish…I could of saved him..." David said sorrowfully.

"David, if you tried anything, Lucas would have been dead too. Don't blame yourself." Samus said with tears in her eyes.

David was completely silent for a minute, and then he looked at Lucas.

"Lucas, I promise you that man is not leaving here without paying for what he's done."

"Ok. I believe in you David."

"Thanks kid."

Suddenly, A large, muscular Shade appeared and shot David with a paralyzer beam, rendering him immobile. Samus pulled her arm cannon up to kill the Shade, but the Shade quickly kicked her across the room. The Shade then pulled out a rifle, and aimed it at Samus.

"NO! SAMUS!" David yelled as he watched helplessly.

Before the Shade fired a shot, a man fell through the ceiling followed by the sound of a sword slashing through flesh. The man landed behind the Shade, and sheaved his sword. The Shade stood still for a few seconds before splitting in half and his body fell to the floor. David regained mobility and looked at the rescuer. He had white hair, and black cybernetic armor, with a cloth wrapped around his left eye. He was obviously a cyborg ninja. David had a suspicion that he knew this person.

"Snake, Samus. Are you okay?" The ninja said.

David was shocked as he recognized that voice and immediately knew who this man was.

"R-Raiden!" David said in shock.

"Snake, I'm going to fight with you. We're going to destroy the Shades and bring peace to this world." Raiden said

"Why do you care about this world Raiden? What about Earth? It's your home, where your family is." David asked.

"This is my home now."

"What?"

"I came here for the same reason you did. I wanted to get away from all the war and corruption. I wanted my family away from it all too, so I brought Rose and John here. They're safe at the Mushroom Kingdom. We'll live here once we've ridden the world of this threat."

David took a minute to soak all of what Raiden said in.

"Alright Raiden, help us out, but be careful. Let's go." David said.

"Wait!" Lucas yelled.

"I want to fight too." The boy requested

"Lucas it's dangerous, I don't want you to get hurt." David said

"I'm doing it for Ness. I'm sorry if you don't like it but I'm going out there to fight whether you like it or not!" Lucas stated.

David looked at Lucas with a blank expression on his face. Lucas began to feel frightened, thinking David was about to explode with anger. Instead, David smiled at Lucas and chuckled.

"I'm proud of you kid." David said and patted Lucas on the shoulder which made the boy smile.

"Just be careful, ok?" David asked

"I will"

"Ok Lucas, you come with me, I could use a partner." Raiden

Lucas nodded and he and Raiden went outside to battle. David turned to Samus, who took off her helmet, revealing her face.

"This is going to be pretty dangerous Y'know?" David asked rhetorically

"Yeah I know." Samus answered

"You ready to go."

"Not until I do this."

Samus put her hands on David's cheeks and kissed him on his lips. David returned the affection.

"I love you David."

"Likewise ma'am." David said causing both of them to smile.

"Ok, I'm ready. Let's go!"

* * *

Outside, Michael and the Smashers were fighting the army of Shades. The Star Fox team was picking of Shades with their blasters, which were set to kill. Link was using the many weapons at his disposal to fight from a distance. Mario, Bowser, and Ganondorf used their supreme fighting skills to kill Shades in close range combat. Bowser was being charged by 10 Shades with swords in hand. Before they struck Bowser, Michael launched a grenade from his AK47, effectively killing the group. In a few minutes, most of the Shades infantry was killed. Link thought that Liquid would get the hint that he couldn't win.

"Give it up Liquid! We won! Your Shades are no match for us!" Link said in an attempt to get a surrender

"You won? Please! Don't make me laugh. We're just getting started. Now the real battle begins!" Liquid yelled.

Suddenly, Large Mechs being piloted by Shades approached the area, and were armed to the teeth. The Smashers were intimidated at the size of these Mechs.

"This…isn't going to be easy.' Michael said

"How the hell are we going to win?" Falco yelled.

"We'll figure something out" Michael responded and took aim at a mech with his rifle.

* * *

**I played Metal Gear Rising this past weekend and I loved it. Platinum Games did a good job of making a Metal Gear game without the Stealth gameplay that has always been a staple for the series. So I thought I should go ahead and get Raiden included in this story. Sorry to any Raiden haters if you read this story. :)**


	16. When the Shadow Falls

**Here we go. The second to last chapter of An Old Snake. Hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

"These Mechs…what do we need to beat them?" Link asked.

"According to Intel I read while I was a part of the federation, Mechs can be taken down by being struck with massive force." Michael said.

At that moment, Bowser, Ganondorf, and Captain Falcon looked at each other and grinned before giving each other a nod. Captain Falcon and Ganondorf dashed towards the mechs. The mechs began opening fire with its machine gun. Falcon and Ganondorf avoided the bullets with great athleticism. Falcon jumped at one of the Mechs, while Ganondorf did the same.

"FALCON PUNNNNNCH!"

"RRRRRRRRRAAAAHHHH!"

Falcon and Ganondorf each used their massive powered punch which had enough force to knock the Mechs to the ground, followed by it exploding. Bowser took out a Smash Ball and crushed it, transforming into the massive beast Giga Bowser. Giga Bowser was just as tall as the mechs, if not taller.

"Well. Looks like we got ourselves a Mech of our own." Michael said humorously.

Giga Bowser charged into a crowd of Mechs. The Mechs opened fire at the beast with machine guns and rocket launchers. They hit Giga Bowser, but the beast did not flinch nor stop charging towards the machines. Giga Bowser approached the enemies and began ripping Mechs apart with his claws.

"Looks like we got this fight in the bag!" Falco said arrogantly.

It would be the last arrogant thing he said. As soon as he finished talking, Falco was sniped in the head by a Shade Sniper, killing him immediately.

"FALCO!" Fox cried.

"SNIPER! EVERYBODY GET THE HELL DOWN!" Michael yelled to the group, and they dropped to the ground immediately.

"Who are those guys?" Wolf yelled.

"Shade Support Teams. They're not as plentiful as the Shade Infantry, but you do not want to fuck around with these guys. You try to charge at them for a fight, consider yourself dead." Michael told the group

Michael pulled out his radio and called Captain Falcon and Ganondorf.

"Guys, pull out of there and get back here now!"

Falcon and Ganondorf began to make their way back to the point where the Smashers were holding up. Falcon made it due to his speed, but Ganondorf wasn't so lucky. As he was running, a blade impaled him through the stomach.

"NO!" Link yelled

Even though he had been impaled, he did not react to it in any way. He knew he would die, so he decided to take down as many Shades as possible. Ganondorf turned around and looked into the eyes of his attacker. The Shade showed fear, seeing how the man was still standing with a sword through his stomach. The Shade threw a punch at Ganondorf. Ganondorf simply flicked the punch to the side and grabbed the Shade by the neck, and squeezed until the Shade's head exploded.

"Holy Shit! That bastard is tough!" Falcon yelled.

"We have to help him!" Link yelled and tried to make his way to Ganondorf.

"No! That sniper is still out there! You step out of cover for one second and your head is going to get blown clean off! Understand?" Michael said to Link.

Link obeyed Michael's order, but was clearly angry having to do so. Ganondorf was making his way towards the sniper. Shades were shooting him, but he refused to go down. He slaughtered anything that got in his path. He got to the sniper, who didn't see Ganondorf because he was focusing on the Smashers position, waiting for one to come out of cover. The sniper heard a foot step and looked up to the left. The last thing he saw was Ganondorf large metal boot hovering over his head, before it stomped down and splattered his head. Ganondorf finally fell to the ground. Just then, David and Samus arrived at the position Ganondorf was in. They had taken an alternate path to get to the hill the Sniper was on so they could flank the Shades. They saw the critically injured Ganondorf on the ground.

"Oh Shit! Ganondorf!" Samus yelled.

David saw that the sniper had been killed, so he took out his radio and called Michael.

"This is David."

"David? Where are you?"

"I'm at the position where the sniper was shooting from. Ganondorf killed him, you guys are in the clear.

"What's Ganondorf's condition?"

"…"

"David?"

"He's…he's not gonna make it."

"Damn!"

"Are there any other casualties?"

"…Falco is dead. Thanks to that sniper…"

"…Michael, don't feel like this is your fault. You're not respon-"

"I'm fine David."

"What?"

"I know that the death of our friends is tragic. But we know what we're getting into. Ganondorf and Falco knew it to. We're fighting for each other, so we will die for each other if it is necessary. I can't blame myself for things out of my control and let it affect me in battle. If I do, then I'm failing my friends who have fallen. Spitting on their grave, making their sacrifice vain. I won't ever do that again."

Fox, who was still grieving over the loss of Falco, heard Michael and was inspired by his words. He decided he would fight, even if he was to die, and that he would not let Falco down.

"Heh. I guess I was wrong about you Michael." David admitted

"Wrong about what?" Michael asked

"About what kind of a man you are. You're actually a man willing to put his life on the line, and can face the fact that his friends will do the same. You're a great leader Michael. You've got my trust. And I'm sure you have theirs."

Michael turned to face the Smashers, who heard what David said and nodded in agreement.

"Thanks. All of you. Thanks. Just…please be careful." David said.

David and Samus turned over to Ganondorf, who was on the brink of death.

"Ganondorf, I'm sorry. I wish there was something we could d…"

"Save it David. There is no need for an apology." Ganondorf said, interrupting David.

"Ganondorf, it isn't like you to risk your life for the sake of others. Why did you?" Samus asked the supposed King of Evil.

"David…you…taught me a few things while…while you were here." Ganondorf said struggling to get every word out.

"What did I teach you?"

"That it's never too late to change our future. That it's better to fight for what you believe in, or to fight for others. Not fight for your own selfish desires like I've done throughout my life."

David was shocked that he was able to bring out the good in the man known as "The King of Evil" with mere words. Ganondorf extended his hand to David, who was surprised by the gesture.

"Thank you…David."

David didn't say anything, but he took the hand of Ganondorf and shook it in respect.

"So this is what it feels like…to die for a good cause. It feels…good…"

And with those final words, Ganondorf succumbed to his injuries. The man, who lived his life as The King of Evil, died a hero.

"Rest in peace…hero." David whispered to the lifeless body of Ganondorf.

"Should we bury him?" Samus asked

As she said that, Ganondorf's body turned into dust and was taken away by the wind, heading for the sky.

"Looks like that won't be necessary." David replied.

David and Samus heard an explosion in the distance.

"We should get going." Samus said

"Right. Let's go." David responded.

But before they could head over to the battlefield, they saw that they were surrounded by Shades. They formed a circle around the two, making sure they couldn't make a run for it. David readied his M4 and Samus turned around and readied her arm cannon. They were connected back-to-back.

"This doesn't look good David." Samus said

"You're right. Surrounded by Shades, no cover, no way to make a break for it."

"Got any ideas?"

"Pray to God that a miracle happens."

"PK FREEZE!" A little boys voices yelled.

A big blast of Ice approached the group of Shades and exploded, resulting in 4 shades being encased in ice. The Shades turned to the direction the ice blast came from. They saw their attacker was Lucas, the boy with psychic powers. They aimed their guns at the boy, but the boy didn't show any fear. Instead, he smirked at them and signaled for them to turn around with his hand. The Shades turned and were cut to pieces in what seemed like a second by the Cyborg Ninja Raiden.

"Looks like we got that miracle." Samus said with a chuckle.

"Good work Lucas." Raiden told Lucas and gave the boy a high five.

"Are you guys alright?" Lucas asked Samus and David.

"We're fine, but only because of you two. If you hadn't shown up we would have been blown away." David answered.

David checked his surrondings, making sure that there were no Shades in sight.

"Ok, looks like we're clear. Let's go."

The four of them began making their way to the battlefield.

* * *

With the sniper eliminated, Michael began leading the Smashers into the warzone. Bowser was still in his Giga Bowser form, fighting Tanks and Helicopters. He finally ran out of energy and returned to his regular form.

"Shit! Bowser ran out of energy. I don't think he has it in him to run back over here." Michael informed his teammates.

"What should we do?" Mario asked

"We need someone to drag him back over here. Problem is Bowser is massive. Is there anyone who has super strength?" Michael asked.

Just as he asked that, Donkey Kong, the ape with god-like strength, ran right past him and headed towards Bowser.

"Ok, everyone cover Donkey Kong!" Michael ordered.

With the Smashers preventing any of the Shades from harming Donkey Kong, the ape was able to get to Bowser and carried him over his shoulders. Donkey Kong successfully brought the Koopa King back to safety.

"Alright, excellent work everybody. Let's keep it up!" Link yelled.

The Smashers were taking down Shades by the dozens. Michael was killing Shades with his trusty M16. While he was fighting, something caught his eye. He saw a group of Shades taking a woman prisoner. She looked familiar. Michael looked closer and realized it was Rosalina. He saw her try to resist, which caused a Shade to strike her. Michael was enraged at the sight, and jumped from cover and ran towards the group in a fit of rage.

"Michael! What are you doing?!" Captain Falcon yelled.

Michael approached the Shades that were taking Rosalina, and aimed his assault rifle at the head of the one that struck her. He pulled the trigger and killed it, causing the Shade to drop Rosalina.

"ROSALINA! GET DOWN!" Michael screamed.

Michael was facing up against 5 Shades. Michael opened fire at the chest of one of the soldiers. The soldier charged at Michael and slapped the gun out of his hands. The soldier attempted to strike Michael with a vicious blow, but Michael side stepped to avoid it. Michael pulled out his combat knife and stabbed the soldier's hand. The other soldiers got involved and began to attack Michael. Michael avoided as many blows as he could and was able to stab one of the Shades every now and then. But Michael was finally hit by a massive blow, leaving him on his back stunned.

"No! Michael!" Rosalina yelled in fear.

The soldier that struck Michael pulled out his own combat knife, one that was much larger than Michael's. He was ready to finish Michael off, and prepared to kill Michael with a final blow. The Shade was about to stab Michael, but was hit by a lethal plasma blast. Michael turned and saw Samus and David with their weapons ready. David opened fire on the Shades, while Samus fired missiles and Plasma shots at them. Michael went to Rosalina and carried her in his arms away from the combat zone.

"Rosalina. Are you okay?" Michael said with concern.

"I'm fine Michael. Oh thank god you're all right!" Rosalina said and embraced Michael.

Michael hugged Rosalina and smiled.

"When will this fighting stop?" Rosalina asked

"Soon. I think we've won this fight."

David and Samus finished off the Shades that attacked Rosalina and Michael. David pulled out his radio and called Link.

"This is David. Me and Samus have cleared out this area. We're moving in to the next one we can find."

"I don't think that will be necessary David." Link's voice said over the radio

"What makes you say that?"

"Because they're all gone. Not a Shade or Mech in sight. We won David. It's over."

"No. It's not over yet." Michael said.

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"We still need to defeat Liquid. If we don't he can gather another army and this will happen all over again."

"Yes you're right. But there is only one person of your group that can defeat me." Liquid said through the radio, putting everyone in shock.

"Liquid! Where are you?!" David asked in fury.

"Behind you."

David turned around and saw Liquid, pointing a pistol at him. As soon as he saw his brother, Liquid shot his gun. David looked stunned.

"D-David" Samus asked with fear in her voice.

David collapsed to the ground. Liquid had shot him in the heart. Michael arrived at the location and opened fire at Liquid, who avoided the bullets and teleported away.

"Damn!" Michael cursed and ran over to David.

"Oh my god! David! Please! DAVID!" Samus screamed in horror.

"Samus…he's dead. I'm sorry."

Samus burst into tears and hugged the corpse of David. The other Smashers gathered around David and grieved at the loss of their friend. Michael grieved briefly, but then a look of realization showed on his face.

"Wait a minute. Samus. Remember what I said about what the Federation told me about the shot I gave David?" Michael asked.

"I forgot, what was it?" Samus asked.

"When the Shadow falls, a man will rise."

"Oh that's right. But what does that have to do with anything! David is dead!"

"He's a shadow. And he's fallen."

"What do you think is going to happen then?"

"Something unexplainable."


	17. Life After Death

**This is it! The Grand Finale of An Old Snake! I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it. Thanks to everyone who supported this story, especially Loke Groundrunner for his reviews and noting any grammatical or spelling errors in my chapters. Enjoy! And don't worry, I have more stories planned soon.**

* * *

David opened his eyes from what felt like a deep sleep. He looked at his surroundings, but there were nothing to be seen. All he could see was pure white, nothing else in sight.

"Where am I? Is this…is this heaven?" David asked himself

David began travelling the white area, trying to find anything else but white.

"Heaven looks nothing like I pictured it."

"That's because you're not in heaven David." A mysterious voice told David.

"Who was that?! Where are you?!" David yelled nervously.

"He's not the only one here." Another voice spoke.

"Who else is here?!"

"We are the Sages David." Another voice answered.

David had a look of shock on his face.

"The…the Sages? Z-Zelda told me about you."

"Yes I did, didn't I?" A familiar voice responded.

A woman then appeared in front of David. The woman was no stranger to David. The woman was none other than Zelda.

"Zelda! W-What are you doing here?! Are you dead to?" David asked in confusion.

"No David. I'm here because I am a Sage. I am the leader of the Sages." Zelda answered.

"Why are you all here?" David asked

"Because David, we're here to send you into the next phase of your existence." Zelda said

"So…the afterlife I'm guessing."

"No David. Let me explain."

Zelda stretched her arm out, and cast a spell of magic. The spell created a orb that showed the events of David's life.

"Throughout your life, you have always fought for the protection of others. To protect humanity from destruction and giving them a chance to build a future."

"But I killed people to do so. And many of times I was lied to and my mission was for the personal gain of a government or politician, not for the safety of mankind."

"While that is true, you killed those people for what you believed in. You always fought for others, with no concern for your own safety. You put yourself in harm's way for the sake of others."

The orb then showed flashbacks of Shadow Moses Island in 2005.

"In the Shadow Moses Incident, you were tortured by Ocelot. You were allowed to be free of the torture if you gave into the pain, but it would be at the cost of Meryl's life. You refused to give in for the sake of Meryl. You could of freed yourself from that torture at any time, but you chose to go through the pain for the sake of another person's life."

The orb then switched to flashbacks of the events of Liquid's Insurrection in 2014.

"Despite your body's condition caused by accelerated aging, you still chose to risk your life to stop Liquid. You were stabbed, your eye was burned, and you chose to walk through a microwave hall that nearly killed you to stop the Patriots."

The orb then showed David's activities in the Smash Universe.

"Perhaps one of your greatest traits is your wisdom David. You gave Lucas confidence, You convinced Hal to be free of his fear of losing a loved one, you inspired Michael to become a better leader, and you did what we thought to be impossible. You brought out the good in Ganondorf, convinced him to fight for the good of others. Your leadership is just astounding." Zelda said

"So what is this next phase of my existence that you were talking about?" David asked.

"You lived your life as a shadow of a man. You were a clone, your genetics were modified. You were meant to be a weapon. Yet you showed more humanity and care than most humans have. Now, you will live a new life as a man." Zelda answered.

"What do you mean."

"You're going back to the Smash Universe David. This time, you will be the man you're supposed to be. You will have the life of a man, a life taken away from you by the Patriots. David, we are releasing you from the binds of your modified genetics. No accelerated aging. No sterilization. All of this can be done because of the shot Michael gave you."

"So that's what it was for?"

"Exactly. Now go David. You're free. Now go and defeat Liquid."

* * *

Back at the Smash Universe, everyone was still grieving over David's death. Samus was still crying over his body. Hal walked over to Samus with tears in his eyes, and touched her shoulder.

"Come on Samus. We need to get a burial ready for him." Hal said.

Samus stood up and began walking with Hal. Donkey Kong was walking towards David's body so he could carry him to the mansion. But David's eyes opened, and his body began levitating. Donkey Kong jumped back in fear.

"What the hell!" Captain Falcon yelled.

Samus and Hal turned around and saw David levitating. Suddenly, the ground below David began rising, sending rocks flying into the sky. David then began yelling in what seemed like a scream of pain.

"What's going on?!" Samus yelled

"I've never seen an Aura like this before. He appears to be… gaining power." Lucario stated.

Four lightning bolts from the sky began striking David, but he was not hurt from it. Then David's body began to drastically change.

"It…It can't be!" Link said in shock

"What?!" Samus yelled

"It's…It's the Sages! They're bringing David back!"

David's hair turned from gray to brown, his original hair color. His wrinkles disappeared, then the burn on his eye disappeared. His damaged right eye was healed and the eye patch covering it ripped off. His face looked like it did the first time he came to the Smash Universe.

"Oh my God!" Samus said in disbelief.

David's shirt ripped off, revealing his scar-covered body that was not in very good condition due to accelerated aging. But the scars began to disappear, and his body suddenly returned to the muscular form he had before. The lightning stopped striking David, and the ground stopped rising. David stopped levitating and landed on the ground, catching himself with his knee and hands. He stood up with a smirk on his face and faced the Smashers, all of who had their jaws dropped.

"Kept you waiting, huh?" He said with a grin.

"DAVID!" Samus screamed with joy as she ran to him and embraced him.

"Oh god David! I thought I lost you." She said sobbing.

"Samus, I promise I'll never leave you again." David assured her.

"It's great to see the real David." Michael said

"Michael, where's Liquid?" David demanded

"He headed North of here I believe."

"Ok thanks. I'm going to go stop him!" David said and began running North

"David be careful!" Samus begged

"Don't worry Samus! I'll be fi-"

David was interrupted as a ring of fire surrounded him.

"What the hell?!" David yelled

"Damn it! He's here David! He came to fight you!" Michael yelled.

Liquid teleported in front of David at that moment.

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE!" Liquid yelled in frustration

"Sorry to disappoint you." David said sarcastically

"So what's the ring of fire for?" David asked

"We're having one final battle Snake! A grand finale! A fight to the death!" Liquid yelled in excitement.

"You always want to end it with a fist fight."

"Well you are in the condition to be a Smasher now Snake! Apparently you were the best when you were last here. I'm going to beat the best, I'm going to take away any hope these Smasher freaks have of victory. We've both been given second chances at life Snake! Let's see who makes the most of it! Either you kill me, and the Shades will be defeated once and for all. Or I kill you in front of your friends and kill them all afterwards." Liquid said sadistically

"I think it will be the former." David responded angrily

"We'll see about that!" Liquid said as his eyes began to glow red, expressing a lust for killing.

* * *

David and Liquid got in their fighting positions. They were both shirtless, just like when they battled on top of Metal Gear REX at Shadow Moses. They stared each other down with a look of sheer intensity. The two brothers began moving towards each other, still in their fighting stance. They were finally close enough to strike the other. Liquid went for the first strike with a right cross. David side stepped the punch and grabbed his arm and countered with a CQC slam. Liquid wasn't slowed down one bit, and got back on his feet instantly, with anger showing on his face. David attacked Liquid with kicks, Liquid blocked each one. Liquid ducked under David's kick and struck his stomach with an uppercut, stunning David. He followed it up with a right cross to David's face, knocking David on his back. David stood back up very quickly, not affected by Liquid's strong punch. They both threw a punch at each other at the same time, and in turn, they struck each other in the face at the same time. The impact of the punches knocked both of them back. Liquid dashed towards David, who reacted by throwing Liquid to the ground.

"WHAT THE!" Liquid yelled as his back hit the ground with great force.

David mounted Liquid to prevent him from getting up. David began striking his defenseless opponent with strong punches to the face. He then began to choke Liquid with his forearm. David finally finished his assault by lifting Liquid's head from the ground, then hitting him on the head with the powerful punch, making the back of Liquid's head slam into the ground. Liquid got up to his feet, it took him a few seconds this time though.

"Ha. Impressive brother." Liquid taunted

David attempted to hit Liquid with a spinning kick, but Liquid backed away from it. Liquid countered by ramming into David with a shoulder tackle, knocking David to the ground. Liquid followed up with a strong punch to David's stomach while he was still on the ground. Liquid went for another stomach punch, but David rolled out of the way, causing Liquid to slam his fist into the hard ground. As Liquid was recovering from the pain in his knuckles, David got up and struck Liquid's forehead with his knee. The attack cut Liquid's forehead and he began to bleed.

"Son of a bitch!" Liquid yelled furiously

He began wailing at David with strong blows. While David was able to block them, they were still hurting his arms due to the power of the blows. David's arms began to tire out, giving Liquid an opening to attack. Liquid struck David's forehead with his elbow, causing David to bleed from the forehead as well.

After a few minutes of exchanging blows, with each getting weaker and weaker, the two stopped to catch a breath. Liquid stood up and began to speak.

"You were right Snake." Liquid said

"What are you talking about?" David questioned

"A fist fight to the death is really losing its excitement. It's not fitting for our final battle."

"Then what do you suppose is Liquid?" David asked although did not care about the matter.

"We're in the Smash Bros. Universe. What do you think?"

"You…want a Brawl Match?" David asked

"Exactly, I already have on set up. I'm sure your friends couldn't get a good view of the fight with the ring of fire in the way. Now they'll have a Giant monitor to watch the match."

After Liquid finished, a giant monitor erected from the ground near the Smashers.

"Let's go Snake!" Liquid ordered and teleported both of them to the stage of battle.

* * *

"Just like old times eh Brother?" Liquid yelled to his brother.

David looked at his surroundings, they were in front of a disposal facility, spotlights, and several familiar things. He realized Liquid brought them to the Shadow Moses Island Stage. He also noticed he had the sneaking suit he used for the Shadow Moses Incident on, so he could use his special attacks.

"How fitting." David muttered.

The two brothers faced each other and got in fighting position.

"READY…GO!" The announcer yelled

David pulled out a grenade and held it for two seconds after pulling the pin. Liquid jumped towards David, planning to land an aerial strike. David lobbed his cooked grenade towards Liquid and leaped away from the explosion that threw Liquid into a wall.

"Impressive. You're definitely a strategic fighter." Liquid said as he was getting back to his feet.

David ran to Liquid and attacked with his standard 3 hit combo. The first two punches landed, but Liquid shielded the spin kick that followed. Liquid grabbed David by the neck and slammed him onto the floor. David rolled away from Liquid and got back on his feet. Liquid attacked with a running shoulder slam, but David side stepped out of its way. David took the opportunity to counter, and kneed Liquid in the back, followed by a strong hammerfist to the back of his head. Liquid was dazed from the attack, and David began to move towards him. Liquid surprised him and took out an Item Capsule and threw it at David, hitting him in the face. While the attack wasn't incredibly painful, it stung for sure. When David recovered from the attack, he saw Liquid kick a Crate on Wheels at him. It was coming at him fast. Thanks to his great reflexes, David jumped on the crate to avoid being rammed by it. He jumped off the crate, using it as a platform, and hit Liquid with an Axe kick to the head. Liquid got up, holding his head in pain, and threw a smoke ball at David. David couldn't see anything because of the smoke. Before he knew it, he was knocked on his back by a strong source of energy. He realized he was hit with a fully charged Super Scope shot, and it hurt like hell. The smoke cleared, and the first thing David saw was Liquid standing over him. Liquid began stomping on David relentlessly. David was looking for an opportunity to break free from the attack. He got one when an explosive crate appeared behind Liquid. David slid a stick of C4 to the box. David pulled out the detonator and activated the C4, exploding and in turn, making a larger explosion from the explosive crate. The explosion threw Liquid at a wall with massive force. David wasn't able to attack Liquid in his injured state, as he himself was recovering from the pain of Liquid stomping on him.

"Well brother, you're putting up a good fight I'll admit. But let's see how you do against me true form." Liquid said as he got back on his feet.

Liquid stretched out his arms and his body began to exude black and red aura, and his muscles grew significantly.

"Have at you Snake!" Liquid yelled

David charged towards his brother and began punching his abdomen repeatedly. None of the strikes were damaging Liquid due to his increase in power. David stopped his attack and stepped back, shocked that Liquid didn't feel a thing.

"Now it's my turn" Liquid said with an evil grin and punched David in the chest, launching him back several feet.

David got back to his feet, but was disoriented from that massive blow he just took. He decided to attack Liquid from a distance. He took out his Nikita Launcher, and shot a missile at Liquid. The missile hit Liquid in the chest and exploded. To David's misfortune, the missile did nothing to Liquid. He didn't flinch or stop moving. David launched another missile at Liquid. This time, Liquid grabbed the missile and threw it back at David. David rolled back just in time to avoid being hit by his own projectile. David dashed at Liquid and threw a punch. Liquid slapped his arm away and punched David in the face twice, then struck him in the sternum with a powerful kick. Liquid picked up a home run bat and struck David's knee with it, making David scream in pain. Liquid swung the bat, and broke the bat over David's left arm, causing the limb to bleed. A laser sword appeared in front of David. David took the sword and stabbed Liquid's right thigh, hoping for the best. To his and Liquid's surprise, it penetrated through Liquid's thigh, causing Liquid to yell in pain. Liquid pulled the sword out of his thigh, and was shocked to see he was bleeding. Liquid was too distracted by the sight of his blood that he didn't react to David's boot smash into his face. Liquid didn't fall down from the kick, but he was disoriented from it. Liquid came back to his senses and pushed David to the ground. David got back up but was back on the ground shortly after, as he was hit by a wooden crate Liquid threw at him. The crate cut David's body in several areas. David's sneaking suit had rips and tears all over and was red with blood. David struggled back to his feet, barely conscious. Liquid pulled his arm back, and his fist began glowing with crimson colored energy.

"DIE!" Liquid yelled and struck David's face with the powerful punch.

David collapsed to the ground. The Smashers all watched the fight in horror, believing David was done for. David was on his back looking up at the sky. His vision was blurred, and he had no clue what was going on. Suddenly, David began having flashbacks. The time he talked to Lucas and encouraged him to move on and enjoy his life. The time Michael became a great leader. The time he convinced Hal he wasn't cursed, leading him to find love in Peach. The time he played with Lucas and Samus in the park. The first time Samus kissed him. Ganondorf, saying his final words to David. Finally, something he said recently went through his head

"_Samus. I promise I'll never leave you again."_

Remembering the promise he made, David came back to his sense, seeing Liquid stand over him.

"It's time to die brother!" Liquid taunted.

"No, not yet." David said

Liquid looked at him with a look of confusion.

"Cause I have a promise to keep!" David yelled.

David stood up and screamed in a fit of rage. His eyes turned yellow, and flames surrounded his body, changing colors frequently. It was the energy of a Smash Ball, but more powerful.

"What the hell?!" Liquid said in shock

Liquid jumped on a platform above him and dove off the platform, attempting to hit David with an aerial attack. David jumped in the air and countered Liquid with 4 consecutive kick, and followed up with an axe kick, sending Liquid to the ground with massive force. Liquid became frustrated, and decided to attack David with brutal strikes. Liquid threw a punch, while David did the same. Their fists collided with each other. The impact caused the ground below them to shake. David hit Liquid's chin with a right hook, angering Liquid even more. They both attacked with a kick, their legs collided. Liquid threw a right cross. David rolled behind Liquid, avoiding the punch. Before Liquid could turn around, David put a chokehold on Liquid. David tightened the chokehold gradually. Liquid tried to escape the hold but had no success. David finally released the chokehold and slammed Liquid to the ground with a suplex. Liquid picked up a ray gun and fired away at David. David flinched from being hit with the shots. After Liquid's final shot, David yelled in pain and collapsed to the ground. Liquid believed David was unconscious and decided to finish him off. He walked to David, and pulled out a knife. When he got close, David leaped back to his feet, took the knife from his hand, and began cutting away at Liquid's chest. He had played dead, and it worked perfectly. After repeatedly slashing Liquid's chest, David's brother was a bloody mess. Liquid looked like he was about to pass out. David raised his fist in the air, and it began glowing with red aura.

"It's over." David whispered

David punched Liquid straight in the chest. This wasn't an ordinary punch however. David's fist penetrated through Liquid's chest and David grabbed his heart.

"Why? W-W-Why can't I b-beat you?" Liquid muttered, with blood spewing from his mouth.

"Who is it that you fight for Liquid? What is it you fight for?" David asked his brother

"I-I fight for no one…no one but myself…for my o-own desires."

"There's your answer Liquid."

"Well. What are you waiting for? Kill me. Kill your brother."

"You're a demon. A shadow. You're no brother of mine."

David ripped Liquid's heart out of his chest and crushed it.

"I pity you Liquid. You never knew peace. I didn't either for most of my life. But with you gone from this universe, I can finally experience it. I only wish you could have done the same."

* * *

The Smashers watched David's victory on the monitor and rejoiced at Liquid's defeat. David was teleported back to the Smashers. He was greeted with applause and cheers. He smiled to everyone, and then noticed Samus running towards him.

"You did it David! You did it!" Samus cried with joy and jumped on David and embraced him.

"Yeah, I did. It's all over now…" David whispered to her as he held her in his arms.

"_It's over. The Universe is at peace. I'm no longer bound by modified genetics. I won't die prematurely. It's time. Time for me to do it." _David thought to himself.

"Samus, I gotta ask you something." David told her

"What's is it?" She asked

David got down on one knee, and looked up at her.

"Will you spend the rest of your life with me? As my wife?" David proposed.

Samus gasped and began to cry. She pulled David to her and kissed him.

"Yes! Of course I will David!" She yelled.

The two embraced for several minutes. The Smashers cheered for the two. They finally released each other, then David looked over to the Smashers and looked at Lucas.

"There's still one more thing I got to do." David said

He signaled Lucas to come see him. Lucas understood the signal and walked over to David.

"You did it David! You saved everyone!" Lucas cheered in admiration

"Yeah, and me and Samus are going to be a family." David responded.

"That's great David."

"And…I want you to be a part of it."

"Huh?" Lucas responded in confusion

David kneeled down to Lucas' level.

"Lucas. I want to adopt you. I want you to be my adopted son, and I want to be your adoptive father, and Samus your mother. Is that ok with you?" David asked.

A large smile grew on Lucas' face, and he ran up to David and Samus and hugged them.

"Yes! I'd love to!" Lucas answered with excitement.

The 3 of them gathered together in a group hug, as they were now a family.

"Thanks Lucas." David whispered with a tear of joy dropping from his eye.

"You're welcome…Dad."

* * *

**1 year later**

David and Samus married 10 months after the proposal. David, Samus and Lucas live together happily in a small neighborhood near the Smash Mansion.

Hal Emmerich continued his relationship with Peach and the two became engaged recently.

Raiden, Now known by his real name Jack, lives peacefully with his wife Rose, and son John in the same neighborhood David lives.

* * *

**Present Day**

Michael was walking up a hill, carrying a duffle bag. He was leaving the Smash Universe. Or was planning to. As he was walking up the hill, a voice called out to him.

"Michael! Michael wait!" the voice of a woman yelled.

Michael turned around and saw it was Rosalina that called for him.

"Rosalina? How did you find me?" Michael asked.

"Never mind that. What are you doing? Where are you going?" Rosalina asked

Michael gave a heavy sigh.

"I-I don't know really. I mean, I did what I came here for. The Shades are gone."

"So you're deciding to leave. You've become good friends with a lot of the Smashers. Why would you want to leave them?"

"I don't know…I feel like I'm missing something."

"What is it?"

"I…I thought that once the Shades were gone, my life would start getting better. But that's not the case. It didn't bring my wife back."

"You're feeling lonely?"

"That describes it pretty well. I don't know if I can find what I'm looking for here."

"You can Michael. I'll make sure of it. I'll be with you to help you find what you're looking for."

"Rosalina…I appreciate it. But I really think I need to search else…"

"Well then I'm coming with you."

"What?"

"I'm coming with you. I'll follow you across the world to help you find what you're looking for."

"You'd leave this place for me?"

"Of course I would."

"Rosalina…I don't know what to say."

"By the way, I never got to thank you properly for saving me from the Shades."

"You don't have to thank me."

"Yes I do."

Rosalina put her hand on Michael's cheek and leaned her face towards his, kissing him passionately on the lips.

"Thank you Michael."

Michael was shocked from what just happened. He didn't know what it was about this mysterious woman. She has something about her that really influences Michael. She made him feel like a better person when she was around him.

"Uh, you know what? I think staying here a little longer wouldn't hurt." Michael said with a smile

Rosalina giggled at this.

"Let's go back to the mansion. I hear Peach has cake for everyone." Rosalina said

"Sounds good." Michael answered

Michael held Rosalina's hand as they headed back to the mansion, ready to face what the future holds in store.

* * *

"_Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies...what we've seen, heard, felt...anger, joy and sorrow...these are the things I will pass on. That's what I live for. We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its have all the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing_."

"_We can tell other people about - having faith. What we had faith in. What we found important enough to fight for. It's not whether you were right or wrong, but how much faith you were willing to have, that decides the future."_

-Solid Snake

* * *

**Thanks to everyone who supported this story. I loved writing it, but all good things must come to an end. Reviews of the whole story overall would be appreciated. I've got some more stories in store. In my next story, I think I'm going to write a humor story. I think I need a little break from Drama and Romance. Until next time, see you later!**


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